ss. Where is the true courage which yet admits of
compromise to be found?"

It is the old question: How can firmness be combined with adaptability
to circumstances? There is no answer except that the two qualities
_must_ be made to run concurrently in the mind. One must be responsive
to the world, and yet sensible of one's own personality. It is only the
special circumstance of a grave crisis which will put a young man to
this crucial test of judgment. The case will have to be judged on its
merits, and yet the final decision will affect the whole of his career.
But one practical piece of advice can be given. Never bully, and never
talk about the whip-hand--it is a word not used in big business.

The view of the intellect often turns towards compromise when the
direction of the character is towards battle. Such a conflict of
tendencies is most likely to lead to the wise result. The fusion of
firmness with a careful weighing of the risks will best attain the real
decision which is known as courage. The intellectual judgment will be
balanced by the moral side. Any man who could attain this perfect
balance between these two parallel sides of his mind would have
attained, at a single stroke, all that is required to make him eminent
in any walk of life. One regards perfection, but cannot attain it. None
the less, it is out of this struggle to combine a sense of proportion
with an innate hardihood that true courage is born; and courage is
success.

IX

PANIC

Panic is the fear which makes great masses of men rush into the abyss
without due reason. It is, in fact, a mass sentiment with which there is
no reasoning. Yet at one time or another in his career every man in
business will be confronted with a stampede of this character, and if he
does not understand how to deal with it, he will be trampled in the mud.

The purely stubborn man will be the first to go under. He will say, and
may be perfectly right in saying, that there is no real cause for
anxiety. He will prepare to run slap through the storm, and refuse to
reef a single financial sail. He forgets that the mere existence of
panic in the minds of others is in itself as hard a factor in the
situation as the real value of the properties on the market which are
being stampeded. The atmosphere of the business world is a reality even
when the views which produce it are wrong. To face a panic one must
first of all realise the intrinsic facts, and then allow for