his business, remarked, "Yes, of course, if the skies fall, all the
larks will be killed."

Panic, therefore, whether external or internal, is an experience which
tests at once the body, the mind, and the soul. The internal panic is an
evil which can only be cured by a resolute application of the will and
intellect to the subconscious self. The panic of a world suddenly
convulsed in its markets is like a thunderstorm, sweeping from the
mountains down the course of a river to where some town looks out on the
bay. It comes in a moment from the wild, and passes as swiftly into the
sea. It has the evanescence of a dream and yet all the force of reality.
It consists of air and rain, and yet the lighter substance, driven with
the force of a panic passion, can uproot the solid materials, as the
tornado the tall trees and the stone dwellings of humanity, and turn the
secular lives of men into desolation and despair. When it has passed,
all seems calm, and only the human wreckage remains to show the power of
the storm that has swept by.

To face these sudden blows which seem to come out of the void, men must
have their reserves of character and mentality well in hand. The first
reserve is that of intellect.

Never let mere pride or obstinacy stand in the way of bowing to the
storm. Firmness of character should on these terrible occasions be
turned inside out, and be formed into a plasticity of intellect which
finds at once its inspiration and its courage in the adoption of novel
expedients. The courage of the heart will let no expedient of the
ingenuity be left untried. But both ingenuity and courage will find
their real source in a health which has not yet exhausted the resources
of the body. Firmness which is not obstinacy, health which is not the