In spite of all the discord, and the sin and the suffering about us, we have an instinctive faith that somehow, somewhere, Nature will rid herself of the last crime, and restore the lost Paradise of Eden.
Chapter XI.
Keeping A Level Head
Give us a man who is not easily thrown off his guard, or off his balance,” is the cry when danger threatens. The man who can think clearly and act wisely when others get excited is the man who is everywhere sought to save the day in a crisis; he is always wanted for important positions, because, in emergencies, which are always likely to arise, everybody feels safer in his hands. It is the man who knows what to do when others are disconcerted, who is cool when others are excited, that is wanted; the man who is not easily flustered when pressure is brought to bear upon him or when he is obliged to assume great responsibility.
Men who easily lose their heads, and who go all to pieces in an accident, or when any great strain is brought to bear upon them or anything very unusual occurs, are weaklings, and are not to be depended upon in an emergency.
There is something superb, something we can not help revering and admiring in a person who can stand perfectly calm, unmoved, and serene when others become excited, lose their heads, and have no control over their acts.
To keep a level head in all circumstances and under all conditions, to keep it when others lose it, to maintain an even judgment, good “horse sense,” when others around one are foolish, is a difficult thing. It shows a great reserve power, that which characterizes the poised, self-controlled man.
What a magnificent example of serenity and poise under all conditions we have in the iceberg at sea! No matter how hard the tempest rages, or how hard the mountainous billows dash against its sides, it does not tremble or quiver, or give any signs of having been touched, because seven-eighths of its enormous bulk is below the surface of the water. Its immensity is securely balanced down in the calm of the ocean depths, beneath the agitation of wave or tempest. It is this tremendous reserve below the surface, this powerful momentum, which makes the exposed part of the iceberg bid defiance to the elements.
One of the most difficult things for a young man to do is to keep a level head. It is so easy to lose one's balance, to get a “swelled head” over a little prosperity, to lose one's ambition for forging ahead by a raise in salary. A little ease and comfort are great tempters, great destroyers of ambition.
It is a difficult thing to keep a level head when the storms of temptation and financial difficulties are raging about one; but it is easier than in prosperity. There is something in human nature which braces up against adversity, which stiffens up when the world goes hard and makes one tug the harder; but somehow ease, comfort, and the thought of prosperity take the spring out of the ambition. The motive to push ahead, to struggle, to strive, is usually weakened by the feeling of satisfaction that one has achieved something worth while, that he has gained what he started out to get.
The test of a large, well-balanced man is that he does not change materially with changed conditions. Financial losses, failure in his undertakings, sorrow, do not throw him off his balance, because he is centered in principle. Nor is he puffed up by a little prosperity.
There is one thing a man ought to be always able to do, no matter in what circumstances he may be placed, and that is, to keep on his feet, and, if he falls, to fall on his feet, and under no circumstances lose his balance. If he can keep calm and act deliberately when others are confused and excited, he has a leading part to play in life. It gives him a tremendous power in his community, because it is the level-headed man, who keeps an even keel in any storm, that is sought for in great emergencies, looked for in the crisis. The shaky man, the waverer, the man who is never certain of himself, who topples over when the crisis comes, who loses his backbone in a panic, is only a fair-weather man, and, like a timid girl, could sail a ship only on a smooth sea.
A balanced man has good judgment, and this implies symmetry of development of the various faculties. And strength of character and of mind come from the harmony of evenly-developed faculties.
In a perfectly-balanced mind no one faculty is developed out of proportion to the others.
In a perfectly-adjusted machine every part is made with reference to every other part. The movement of every wheel in a perfect timepiece must be exquisitely adjusted to the entire watch, and each must be suited to every other wheel in the watch. You would not boast of your watch because it had a very powerful mainspring while all the other parts were very delicately constructed and were not intended for so much power. We value a watch in proportion as it keeps perfect time, for this is its purpose.
How rare it is to find among city youth a really good business head, well-balanced, normal, without any great weakness which cuts the average down to mediocrity. A superb, well-balanced head, with faculties keen, judgment clear and sound, a mind that is not made one-sided by prejudice, not weakened by superstition, is a rare thing.
Many youths are one-sided from lack of good, sensible, all-round training. Some one faculty, which happens to be predominant, is forced in its education, and the weaker ones, which ought to have exercise in order to keep the balance of all the faculties, atrophy from disuse. The training and education of the great majority of youths are not calculated to develop symmetry of faculty, balance of mental power. There is a great discrepancy between the physical and the mental training; or some one faculty is forced out of all proportion until the balance is lost.
The great object of early training should be to maintain the balance, to get equipoise of faculty, symmetry of evolution, because only in this way can good judgment be developed, a sound mind produced. For those who have not reached maturity, one-sided development, forced special training, is one of the greatest curses of modern life. No wonder our insane asylums are overrun. The one-faculty-development is responsible for a large part of the lost balance, the lack of symmetry, the poor, weak judgment of many of our people.
Mental poise indicates power, because poise is the result of mental harmony. One-sided minds, no matter how brilliant in some particular faculty, are never balanced minds, any more than a tree is harmonious which has sent practically all of its sap, its nourishment, into the development of one huge branch, so that other parts of the tree have suffered from starvation.
The poised physician or surgeon in a critical case where a life hangs in the balance always has the advantage of the excitable one who is full of fear and loses his head.
Mental poise gives strength to the lawyer. The poise of mind suggests great reserve power. It is the lawyer who maintains his equanimity and perfect mental equipoise in a great trial, while the little attorneys rant and fume, who carries weight with the jury.
It was Webster’s great mental equanimity that made him the colossal figure he was in the Senate and at the Bar. His consciousness of great mental power gave him tremendous advantage over weaker men who doubted their ability to cope with him.
Mental poise gives us a glimpse of the possibilities of the coming man, of man when all of his faculties shall be symmetrically developed, so that his life will express harmony instead of discord.
The greatest forces in the universe are noiseless, are perfectly poised. Scientists tell us that there is force enough in a few acres of growing grass to run all the machinery of the world, and yet, like all the other forces of nature, it is absolutely noiseless. The most delicate ear can not detect any friction, the slightest lack of harmony, in the works of nature.
The strongest characters are never noisy. They are balanced, poised, serene. The water in a little mountain brook dashing down over the rocks will make more noise than the mighty Mississippi River. Weak characters, like an empty wagon, are noisy. They fuss and fume and accomplish but little.
The effectiveness of our work depends upon all our faculties working in harmony. We often see