at the outset.

It is a lucky day for timid people of this class when fate prevents them
from entering into competition with those who are possest of poise.

Were these latter a hundred times weaker than they are they would still
end by triumphing over their feeble antagonists.

It is above all in the affairs of ordinary every-day life that poise
renders the most valuable service.

If it becomes a question of presenting or discussing a matter of
business, the timid man, embarrassed by his own personality, begins to
stammer, becomes confused, and can not recall a single argument. He
finally abandons all the gain that he dreamed of making in order to put
an end to the torments from which he suffers.

He is to be considered lucky if under the domination of the troubles in
which he finds himself, he does not lose all faculty of speech.

This failing, so common among the timid, is a further cause of confusion
to the victim.

At the bare idea that he may become the prey of such a calamity he
unconsciously closes his lips and lowers the tones of his voice.

The man of poise, on the other hand, feels himself the more impelled to
redouble his efforts in proportion to the need his cause has for being
well defended.