Strength to step forward is the primary
need of him who has chosen his path. Where
is this to be found? Looking round, it is not
hard to see where other men find their strength.
Its source is profound conviction. Through this
great moral power is brought to birth in the
natural life of the man that which enables him,
however frail he may be, to go on and conquer.
Conquer what? Not continents, not worlds, but
himself. Through that supreme victory is
obtained the entrance to the whole, where all
that might be conquered and obtained by effort
becomes at once not his, but himself.

To put on armor and go forth to war,
taking the chances of death in the hurry of the
fight, is an easy thing; to stand still amid
the jangle of the world, to preserve stillness
within the turmoil of the body, to hold silence
amid the thousand cries of the senses and
desires, and then, stripped of all armor and
without hurry or excitement take the deadly
serpent of self and kill it, is no easy thing.
Yet that is what has to be done; and it can
only be done in the moment of equilibrium
when the enemy is disconcerted by the silence.

But there is needed for this supreme