Sympathy, Knowledge and Poise seem the three ingredients most needed in forming the gentle man.  I place these elements according to their value.  No man is great who does not possess Sympathy plus, and the greatness of men can safely be gauged by their sympathies.  Sympathy and imagination are twin sisters.  Your heart must go out to all men, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the learned, the unlearned, the good, the bad, the wise, the foolish—­you must be one with them all, else you can never comprehend them.  Sympathy!  It is the touchstone to every secret, the key to all knowledge, the open sesame of all hearts.  Put yourself in the other man’s place, and then you will know why he thinks certain thoughts and does certain deeds.  Put yourself in his place, and your blame will dissolve itself into pity, and your tears will wipe out the record of his misdeeds.  The saviors of the world have simply been men with wondrous Sympathy.

But Knowledge must go with Sympathy, else the emotions will become maudlin and pity may be wasted on a poodle instead of a child; on a field-mouse instead of a human soul.  Knowledge in use is wisdom, and wisdom implies a sense of values—­you know a big thing from a little one, a valuable fact from a trivial one.  Tragedy and comedy are simply questions of value:  a little misfit in life makes us laugh, a great one is tragedy and cause for grief.

Poise is the strength of body and strength of mind to control your Sympathy and your Knowledge.  Unless you control your emotions they run over and you stand in the slop.  Sympathy must not run riot, or it is valueless and tokens weakness instead of strength.  In every hospital for nervous disorders are to be found many instances of this loss of control.  The individual has Sympathy, but not Poise, and therefore his life is worthless to himself and to the world.

He symbols inefficiency, not helpfulness.  Poise reveals itself more in voice than in words; more in thought than in action; more in atmosphere than in conscious life.  It is a spiritual quality, and is felt more than it is seen.  It is not a matter of size, nor bodily attitude, nor attire, nor personal comeliness:  it is a state of inward being, and of knowing your cause is just.  And so you see it is a great and profound subject after all, great in its ramifications, limitless in extent, implying the entire science of right living.  I once met a man who was deformed in body and little more than a dwarf, but who had such Spiritual Gravity—­such Poise—­that to enter a room where he was, was to feel his presence and acknowledge his superiority.  To allow Sympathy to waste itself on unworthy subjects is to deplete one’s life-forces.  To conserve is the part of wisdom.  No great orator ever exerts himself to his fullest, and reserve is a necessary element in all good literature, as well as in everything else.  Poise being the control of your Sympathy and Knowledge implies the possession of these attributes,