d qualities by a temperamental impatience which he finds it
difficult or impossible to control, and which makes him irritable and
restless at any suggestion of delay.

Now the first of these men need not to be wholly commended, nor the
second entirely condemned. A capacity for deliberation, both in study
and in practice, is very useful when learning to fly. It will protect
a man from many errors, and render his progress sure, though it may be
slow. But something more than deliberation is required in the aviator
of distinction. There must be the vital spark of enterprise, the
temperamental quality which is known as "dash," the quick action of
the mind, in difficulty or peril, that will carry certain men to
safety through many dangers. This imaginative power is possessed as a
rule, though in ways that differ considerably, by the second type of
pupil we have described--the restless, impatient man. But in his case
this quality is, more often than not, marred by his instability; by
the lack of that judgment which is so necessary to counterbalance
imagination, but which is, unfortunately, not so often found.

A man who decides to become an aviator, and particularly if he intends
to fly professionally, should ask himself quite seriously if his
temperament is likely to aid him, or whether perhaps it may not be a
danger. This point is certainly one of importance, though it cannot be
stated directly or decided in so many words. There is a vital question
at least that the novice should ask himself; and this is whether his
temperament, whatever its general tendency may be, includes a
sufficient leavening of caution. In the navigation of the air caution
is indispensable. A pupil must remind himself constantly that, though
it appears easy--and is indeed easy--to learn to handle a machine in
flight, no liberties must under any circumstances be taken with the
air. Every instant a man is flying he needs to remember the value of
caution. In the air one cannot afford to make mistakes.

Naturally there is an ideal temperament for flying; but it is one
which, owing to the combination of qualities that are required, is
very rarely met with. The man who possesses it is gifted with courage,
ambition, "dash," and with a readiness in an emergency that amounts to
intuition. And yet these positive qualities are, in the ideal
temperament, allied to, and tempered by, a strong vein of prudence and
of caution. The pilot has absolute system, method,