t is, therefore, between modesty and effrontery, both equally
prejudicial to success, that poise must naturally be placed.

But, it will be objected, all the world does not possess this gift of
poise. Are those who do not share it to be forever denied all chance of
success?

Not so! It is open to all the world to acquire this gift, and if the
chapters following this are read with care it will be seen that it is
something that can be cultivated, so that it can be gradually perfected
and carried about with one as the germ of every sort of success, the
happy issue of which depends upon a thorough realization of one's own
merits and the honorable ambition to accomplish a task that has been
prudently planned and bravely carried to an end.

CHAPTER II

PHYSICAL EXERCISES TO ACQUIRE POISE

Before preparing oneself by the exercise of reasoning and will-power for
the acquisition of poise, it is vitally necessary to make oneself
physically fit for the effort to be undertaken.

One should begin with this fundamental principle:

Timidity being a disease one must treat it just as one would any other
illness.

Like all other physical maladies it is sure to be the cause of loss of
social prestige to those who suffer from it.

It must then be combated in the same way as any other infirmity of long
standing that threatens to ruin the life of the sufferer.

It is a grave mistake to consider it merely a mental ailment that can be
alleviated by nothing but psychological treatment.

One's nervous condition plays a very large part in the conquest of
poise.

We must, therefore, watch most carefully over the good health of the
body before taking any measures whatever to abolish a condition of
affairs that has been engendered by physical weakness and that will be
fostered by it unless such weakness can be eradicated or more or less
dissipated and ameliorated by a thousand little daily acts of care.

It must be understood that we are not now speaking of medical treatment.
We have reference merely to that common-sense hygiene which has become
more or less a part of modern existence, and the daily practise of
which, while firmly establishing the health, has at the same time an
undoubted reflex action upon the mind. It is a well-known fact that
energy is never found in a weakened body, and that people who are
suffering are clearly marked down to become the prey of those wasting
diseases, whose names, all more or less fan