be seen.

"Ambitious persons push away the troublesome ones, in order that they
themselves may get the first places.

"Lazy persons just let them do it.

"Irresolute persons hesitate before sitting down in vacant places and
are consumed with regrets from the time they perceive that others,
better prepared, take possession of them; the more so as they no longer
get back their own, for, during their hesitation, another has seated,
himself there.

"Enthusiasts fight to reach the first rank, but are so fatigued by their
violent struggles that they fall, tired out, before they have attained
their object.

"Obstinate people persist in coveting inaccessible places and spend
strength without results, which they might have employed more
judiciously.

"People of common sense are the only ones who experience no nervous
tension because of this struggle.

"They calculate their chances, compute the time, do not disturb
themselves uselessly, and never abandon their present position until they
have a firm grasp on the following place.

"They do not seek to occupy a rank which their knowledge would not permit
them to keep; they draw on that faculty with which they are gifted to
learn the science of true proportion.

"They do not meddle in endeavors to reform laws; they submit to them, by
learning how to adapt them to their needs, and respect them by seeking to
subordinate their opinion to the principle on which they are based.

"Persons who have no common sense are the only ones to revolt against the
laws of the country where they live.

"The wise man will recognize that they have been enacted to protect him
and that to be opposed to their observance would be acting as an enemy
to oneself."

However, people will say, if laws are so impeccable in their right
to authority, how is it that their interpretation leads so often
to disputes?

It is easy to reply that lawsuits are rarely instituted by men of common
sense; they leave this burden to people of evil intent, who imagine thus
to make a doubtful cause triumph.

It must be conceded that this means succeeds at times with them, when
they are dealing with timid or irresolute persons; but those who have
contracted the habit of reasoning, and who never undertake anything
without consulting common sense, will never allow themselves to be drawn
into the by-paths of sophistry.

If they are forced to enter there temporarily, in order to pursue the
adversary, who has hidden