n trust yourself to take responsibility
for things in which seeming trifles may be of the highest importance. If,
on the other hand, you are blonde or red-haired; if your head is round and
dome-shaped just above the temples and round behind; if your nose is
prominent and your chin narrow and receding at the lower point; if your
flesh is elastic, with a tendency toward softness; if your fingers are
short and either square or tapering, then you had better prepare yourself
for some vocation where you can deal with large affairs, where you can
plan and organize and direct, and let other people work out the details.

COURAGE AND RECKLESSNESS

The story is told of two soldiers going into battle. Both pushed forward
swiftly and eagerly. They were rapidly nearing the danger zone. Already
men were falling around them. As they went on, one suddenly looked at the
other. "Why," he cried, "your face is white, your eyes are glazed, your
limbs are trembling. I believe you are afraid!"

"Great God, man! of course I am afraid," replied the other. "And if you
were one-half as afraid as I am, you would turn and run."

Here we have the discrimination between real courage and mere
foolhardiness or recklessness. There are some vocations which require
courage. There are others which require an element of recklessness. It
requires courage to drive the locomotive of a railroad train at a speed of
eighty miles an hour, but it also requires caution, prudence,
watchfulness, and even apprehension.

In a western factory men were wanted for an important job, one in which a
moment's carelessness in the handling of levers might cost a dozen fellow
workmen their lives. "Find me," said the superintendent, "the most careful
men you can get. I do not want anyone dumping damage suits on the
company." The employment department found the very careful men, but none
of them were satisfactory; they were all so careful that they made no
speed, and soon had to be relieved for this reason, and because the
constant nervous strain was too much for them. Here was a kind of work
requiring a certain cool, calm, deliberate recklessness. Men were found
with steady nerves, keen eyesight, quick reaction time, and smooth
co-ordination of muscular action, together with a moderate degree of
cautiousness. These men liked the work for the very tingle of the danger
in it. They swung their ponderous machines to their tasks with a sureness
of touch and a swiftness of oper