have formed them are constantly changing. The moment that I cease to be
able to accept and pass into my own experience new factors which my past
would reject as unpleasant or untrue I have become stereotyped in
prejudice and the truth of actuality is no longer in me, and when touch
with the world is lost the only alternative is retirement or disaster."

The more quickly youth breaks away from the prejudices of its
surroundings, the more rapid will be its success. The harder that age
fights against prepossessions, born of the past, which gather round to
obstruct the free operation of its mind, the longer will be the period
of a happy, successful, and active life.

Prejudice is a mixture of pride and egotism, and no prejudiced man,
therefore, will be happy.



XIV


CALM


The last two essays have dealt with the more depressing sides of
practical life--the sudden tempest which sweeps down on the business
man, or the long period of depression which is the necessary prelude to
the times in which optimism is justified. But it is on the note of
optimism, and not of pessimism, that I would conclude, and after the
storm comes the calm. What is calm to the man of experience in affairs?
It is the end to which turbulent and ambitious youth should devote