nd. It is a
well-known axiom that effects are produced by causes, and _vice versa_.

Thus, in the case we are considering, timidity either causes the
difficulty in speaking or is caused by it. In the first condition as
well as in the second, the disappearance of the one trouble depends upon
the eradication of the other.

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR OBTAINING POISE

COMPOSURE

One of the essential conditions of acquiring poise is to familiarize
oneself with the habit of composure.

Timid people know nothing of its advantages. They are always ill at
ease, fearful, devoured by dread of other people's censures, and
completely upset by the idea of the least initiative.

Their mania leads them to exaggerate the smallest incident. A trifle
puts them in a panic, and at the mere notion that strangers have
perceived this they become quite out of countenance and are possest by
but one idea, to avoid by flight the repetition of such unpleasant
emotions.

A quite useless attempt, for in whatever retirement people who lack
poise may live, they will find themselves certainly the victims of the
small embarrassments of every-day life, which, in their eyes, will soon
take on the guise of disasters.

Composure should, then, be the first achievement in the way of
self-conquest to be aimed at by the man who is desirous of attaining
poise.

But, it will be objected, composure is a condition that is not familiar
to everybody. It is a question of temperament and of disposition. Every
one who wishes for it can not attain to it.

This is an error. In order to possess composure, that is to say the
first step in the mastery of self which enables one to judge of the
proportions of things, it must be achieved, or developed, if we happen
to be naturally inclined thereto.

To accomplish this, deep-breathing exercises are often recommended by
the philosophers of the new school.

They advise those who are desirous of cultivating it to make no
resolution, to commit themselves to no impulsive action, without first
withdrawing into themselves and taking five or six deep breaths in the
manner we have described in the preceding chapter.

This has the physical effect of reducing the speed with which the heart
beats and, as a result, of relaxing the mind and quieting one's nerves.

During the two or three minutes thus employed one's enthusiasm wanes and
one's ideas take on a less confused form. In a word, unreasoning
im