es is surely won.

In the beginning, the student is often perplexed by the magnitude of the
task which lies before her. Later, she comes to know that men, like
cats, need only to be stroked in the right direction. The problem thus
becomes a question of direction, which is seldom as simple as it looks.

[Sidenote: The Personal Equation]

Yet men, as a class, are easier to understand than women, because they
are less emotional. It is emotion which complicates the personal
equation with radicals and quadratics, and life which proceeds upon
predestined lines soon becomes monotonous and loses its charm. The
involved _x_ in the equation continually postpones the definite result,
which may often be surmised, but never achieved.

Still, there is little doubt as to the proper method, for some of the
radicals must necessarily appear in the result. Man's conceit is his
social foundation and when the vulnerable spot is once found in the
armour of Achilles, the overthrow of the strenuous Greek is near at
hand.

There is nothing in the world as harmless and as utterly joyous as man's
conceit. The woman who will not pander to it is ungracious indeed.

Man's interest in himself is purely altruistic and springs from an
unselfish desire to please. He values physical symmetry because one's
first impression of him is apt to be favourable. Manly accomplishments
and evidences of good breeding are desirable for the same reason, and he
likes to think his way of doing things is the best, regardless of actual
effectiveness.

[Sidenote: Pencils]

For instance, there seems to be no good reason why a man's way of
sharpening a pencil is any better than a woman's. It is difficult to see
just why it is advisable to cover the thumb with powdered graphite, and
expose that useful member to possible amputation by a knife directed
uncompromisingly toward it, when the pencil might be pointed the other
way, the risk of amputation avoided, and the shavings and pulverised
graphite left safely to the action of gravitation and centrifugal force.
Yet the entire race of men refuse to see the true value of the feminine
method, and, indeed, any man would rather sharpen any woman's pencil
than see her do it herself.

[Sidenote: The "Supreme Conceit"]

It pleases a man very much to be told that he "knows the world," even
though his acquaintance be limited to the flesh and the devil--a
gentleman, by the way, who is much misunderstood and whose faults are
p