lace without causing us physical discomfort,
and this condition is a serious stumbling-block in the way of the
acquisition of poise, for, in view of the great stress the man of
timidity lays upon the opinion of others, he will be apprehensive of
giving them any inkling of his distress, and yet his difficulty in
breathing will be bound to reveal it.

The exercise of which we have been speaking should be performed with
care twice a day.

For those whose leisure hours are few it can be accomplished without
losing any of the time which is already preempted by other things.

It is merely a question of remembering it as soon as one wakes in the
morning and of never forgetting it before one falls asleep at night.

The few minutes between the moment that one wakes and the time one gets
out of bed can be most profitably employed in this way.

The same thing is true at night.

If the occupations of the day and of the evening leave us no time to
devote to this exercise, we can always go through it in the moments
between retiring to bed and falling asleep.

It will thus be seen that there is really no valid excuse for not
undertaking this practise, whose effects will certainly be most
beneficial.

SECOND SERIES--TRAINING OF THE EYE

But our physical efforts must not stop here.

It is more than necessary that we should make others feel the effects of
the mastery that we are slowly acquiring over ourselves.

The eye is an invaluable assistant to the man who is studying to acquire
poise.

It is not necessary here, in connection with the magnetic properties of
the eye, to enter into a digression too extensive for the scope of this
book, but we can not neglect this one more-than-important factor
altogether.

We are speaking now not only of the power in the gaze of others but of
that of our own eyes in relation to our associates.

We must do our best, in fine, to develop the power of our gaze, while
studying to fortify ourselves against the influence brought to bear upon
us in this direction by others.

One frequently notices, especially in the case of people who are timid,
a propensity to lose their powers of resistance with those who are able
to fix them with a steady stare.

One has often seen people who lack will-power emerging completely upset
from the grueling of an interview in which they have admitted everything
that they had most fervently resolved never to disclose.

A superior force has dominated them t