fad of the valetudinarian, adaptability which is not weakness,
enterprise which is not rashness--these are the qualities which will
preserve men in those evil days when the "blast of the terrible one is
against the wall."



X


DEPRESSION


Depression is not a word which sounds cheerfully in the ears of men of
affairs. But the actuality is not as bad as the term. It differs in
every respect from Panic. It is not a sudden and furious gust breaking
on a peaceful situation, irrational both in its onset and in its passing
away, but something which can be foreseen, and ought to be foreseen, by
any prudent voyager on the waters of business. The wise mariner will
furl his sails before the winds blow too strong.

Nor is depression in itself a disaster. It is merely the wholesome
corrective which Nature applies to the swollen periods of the world's
affairs. As with trade and commerce, so with the individual.

The high-spirited man pays for his hours of elation and optimism, when
every prospect seems to be open to him and the sunshine of life a thing
which will last for ever, by corresponding states of reaction and gloom,
when the whole universe seems to be involved in a conspiracy against his
welfare. The process is a salutary if not a pleasant one--and has been