Part 17 (1/2)
Far from avoiding this, one should seize every occasion to utilize it to one's advantage.
The determined student should even create opportunity for so doing, which, in forcing him to break down his reserve, will make it necessary for him to come to definite decisions and to carry them out.
Every chance to exhibit real and honest activity should be seized by him.
Between two decisions, equally favorable to him, of which one will leave him to his peaceful retirement and the other will involve active measures, he should not hesitate for a moment.
He will make choice of that which will compel him to exhibit physical activity.
It is, however, important that manifestation of purposeless energy should be rigidly represt. They are always harmful to one's equilibrium and to the qualities needed for the attainment of poise.
One should never forget the well-known proverb:
”Speech is silver, but silence is golden.”
Silence, in a vast number of instances, is the indisputable proof of the empire that one has over oneself.
To be able to keep quiet and to close one's lips until the moment when reflection has enabled us to discipline our too-violent emotions, is a quality that belongs only to those who have obtained the mastery over themselves.
The weak become excited, indulge in protests, and expend themselves in angry denunciations that use up the energy they should retain for active measures.
The man of resolution is most careful not to allow it to be known at what point he has been wounded. He keeps silence and reflects.
Resolves form within his mind and, when he at last is ready to speak, it is to utter some firm decision or to put forward arguments that are unanswerable.
To tell the truth, those who instantly and noisily voice their antagonisms, who, under the sting of a hurt to their vanity indulge in threats of violence, are actually dangerous.
Their accusations, dictated by anger and heightened by the sense of their own inferiority, are always characterized by impotence.
They make people smile, provoke perhaps a little pity, but never cause any fear.
They are like the toy guns of children, which have the air of being most deadly weapons, but which are constructed of such fragile materials that a vigorous blow will cause them to fall to pieces.
The self-control of the man of resolution in the face of insult and provocation is far more impressive than these idle threats.
His silence is ominous. It is a sort of mechanical calm which produces decisions from which all pa.s.sion is excluded.
His answers, well thought out and adapted exactly to the circ.u.mstances of the case, impress one by their coldness and by their tone of finality. His words are always followed by deeds, and are the more weighty for the fact that one knows that they are merely preliminary to the actions that they foretell.
This is one of the marked advantages of those who possess poise, one of various methods of conquering and dominating the minds of others.
There are other strong points belonging to those who cultivate poise, which, judiciously employed, unite in giving them an incontestable superiority over the majority of the people they meet.
The man of poise will not be overgay or too boisterous. Still less will he be taciturn. Moody people are nearly always those who are convinced of their own lack of ability and quite certain that the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to make them miserable.
They lack all pride and make no bones about admitting themselves to be defeated.
These, we must admit, are rather difficult conditions in which to effect anything worth while.
In ”Timidity: How to Overcome It,” M.B. Dangennes tells us that one day a party of men agreed to undertake a journey, the object of which was to attain a most wonderful country.