The Majesty of Calmness



Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a
great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral
atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled.
Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious
power,--ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.

The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness,--petrifaction is not
calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one
lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the
man who is calm.

The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment,
hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly
indifferent to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship,
drifting on the ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known
port to which he is sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all
nature is shown in his existence of constant surrender. It is not,--
calmness.

The man who is calm has his course in life clearly marked on his chart.
His hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger,
hidden reefs,--he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm
and serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he
needs a clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do
each day the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch
nor falter for a moment; that, though he may have to tack and leave his