ngth, until he feels no further inconvenience.

The feeling of obvious awkwardness is a large factor in the lack of
poise.

It is then a matter of great importance to modify one's outward
carriage, while at the same time applying oneself to the conquest of
one's soul, so as to achieve the object not only of actually becoming a
man who must be reckoned with, but of impressing every one with what one
is, and what one is worth.

FOURTH SERIES--SPEAKING EXERCISES

Is it really necessary to point out what a weight readiness of speech
has in bringing about the success of any undertaking?

The man who can make a clever and forceful speech will always convince
his hearers, whatever may be the cause he pleads.

Do we not see criminals acquitted every day solely because of the
eloquence of their lawyers?

Have we not often been witnesses to the defeat of entirely honest people
who, from lack of ability to put up a good argument, allow themselves to
be convicted of negligence or of carelessness, if of nothing worse?

Eloquence, or at least a certain facility of speech, is one of the gifts
of the man of poise.

One reason for this is that his mind is always fixt upon the object he
wishes to attain by his arguments, which eliminates all wandering of the
thoughts.

But there is another reason, a purely physical one. The emotions
experienced by the timid are quite unknown to him and he is not the
victim of any of the physical inhibitions which, in affecting the
clearness of their powers of speech, tend to reduce them to confusion.

Stammering, stuttering, and all the other ordinary disabilities of the
speaker, can almost without exception be attributed to timidity and to
the nervousness of which it is the cause.

We shall see in the next chapter how these defects can be cured.

In this, which is devoted specially to physical exercises, we will give
the mechanical means for overcoming these grave defects.

Just as soon as the difficulties of utterance have been overcome, and
one is no longer in terror of falling into a laughable blunder, and thus
has no further reason to fear, when undertaking to speak, that one will
be made fun of because the object of disconcerting mockery, one's ideas
will cease to be dammed up by this haunting dread and can take shape in
one's brain just as fast as one expresses them.

Clearness of conception will be reflected in that of what we say, and
poise will soon manifest itself in the ma