the
misreading of others. It is the plastic and ingenious mind which will
best grapple with these unusual circumstances. It will invent weapons
and expedients with which to face each new phase of the position.
"Whenever you meet an abnormal situation," said the sage, "deal with it
in an abnormal manner." That is sound advice. But a business panic is,
after all, a rare phenomenon--something a man need only have to face
once in a lifetime. It is the panic in the mind of the individual which
is the perpetual danger. How many men are there who let this perpetual
fear of financial disaster gnaw at their minds like a rat in the dark?
Those who only see the mask put on in the daytime would be astonished to
know the number of men who lay awake at night quaking with fear at some
imagined disaster, the day of which will probably never come. These are
the men who cannot keep a good heart--who lack that particular kind of
courage which prevents a man becoming the prey of his own nervous
imagination. They sell out good business enterprises at an absurdly low
price because they have not got the nerve to hold on. Those who buy them
secure the profits. One may pity the sellers, but cannot blame the
buyers. Those who have the courage of their judgment are bound to win.
These pessimists foresee all the possibilities, and just because they
foresee too much, it may be that they will spin out of the disorder of
their own minds a real failure which a little calmness and courage would
have avoided.

The moment a man is infected with this internal panic-fear, he ceases to
be able to exercise his judgment. He is convinced, let us say, that the
raw material of his industry is running short. He sees himself with
contracts on hand which he will not be able to complete. Very likely
there is not the remotest risk of any such shortage arising, but, in the
excess of his anxiety, he buys too heavily, and at too high a price. His
actions become impulsive rather than reasoned. It is true that in the
perfectly balanced temperament action will follow on judgment so quickly
that the two operations cannot be distinguished. Such decisions may
appear to be precipitate or impulsive, but they are not really so. But
the young man who has the disease of fear in his brain cells will act on
an impulse which is purely irrational, because it is based on a blind
terror and not on a reasoned experience.

When a man is in this state of mind, the best thing he can do is