ever
brave he may be he will infallibly find himself vanquished in a struggle
in which everything has combined in advance to defeat him.

Boasting is not courage. Still less is it poise.

Poise is a power derived from the mastery of self. It inhibits all
outward manifestations that are likely to result in giving information
to strangers with regard to our real feelings.

Braggarts can not avoid this stumbling-block. They know nothing of the
delights of contemplation, from which arise ripe resolutions that will
be steadfastly followed.

With the noise of their boastings, with the shouting of their own
braggart ineptitudes, they hypnotize themselves so thoroughly that they
are quite unable to hear the counsel that sane wisdom whispers in their
ears.

They are like the man in the eastern fable who was quite unable to
follow a beaten path and was constantly wandering across the fields of
his neighbors.

These detours were in general much longer than the direct road would
have been, and he received a constant stream of abuse, to say nothing of
blows, from the people whose crops he was ruining.

But he seemed quite insensible to assaults and insisted upon following,
across lots, a road which led nowhere.

It would be difficult to paint a more faithful portrait. Like the
peasant in the story, the man of effrontery is always wandering far from
the common road, the tranquil peace of which he despises.

He delights in crossing land that he knows to be forbidden to him, seeks
to force open gates that are closed at his approach, and, if he can not
overcome the opposition of the porter, watches for the moment when an
open window will permit him entrance into a house where he will be
coldly, if not angrily, received.

What is the result of this?

Nothing favorable to his plans, one may be sure. People point him out.
They fly from him, and were he the bearer of the most advantageous
proposition, refuse to put any faith in his assertions as soon as they
get to know him in the least.

Effrontery may sometimes impose upon the innocent. But it is only a
momentary deception, quickly dissipated the moment that time is given to
estimate the emptiness of its claims.

There is another variety of effrontery that is comparable to the form of
courage exhibited by the timorous who sing in a loud voice in order to
lessen their terror and imagine that by so doing they give the illusion
of bravery.

People of this sort talk very lo