About the most fascinating thing that life has shown me is the way in which fine examples of the younger generation learn the deeper matters of life--matters of self-mastery which make the very presence of a lad significant to a stranger, and which formerly were supposed to be secrets for the sons of kings alone. "Do you fear anything?" I ask. "Look deep. Listen deep--do you fear anything?... It's like the pain that tells you of a weakness or disease. Fear is an unerring reminder of a task of conquest ahead for you. That which you fear most is the thing to conquer first." There had been much of this talk of Fear before a laughable personal experience showed me how much I asked. I crossed a mesa and came to an abrupt drop-off--two hundred feet sheer. It astonished me. I hadn't experienced anything like this quiver of horror for years. All members and muscles bolted at the thought of advancing closer to the edge. I sat down to think it out. It never had occurred before that I _wasn't_ my nervous system, and must not let it get me down. The more I thought, the more I perceived that I must do the thing I dreaded so. In fact, I had told trusting young people that they were not their bodies, not their emotions, not even their minds--that these must be made to obey. Here I had a chance to prove if I were less in action than talk. I forced my fluttering young self to the edge.... Dizziness--wobbly limbs, fancied shoves from behind, the call of the huge shadowed space below, a queer sense of parting in mid-air, the body thumping down, another and liberated self gladly spurning the ground--all these symptoms of panic followed swiftly. I held until calm came, and I then could study this little coil of forgotten fears--a civilised mess.... The weakness was absurdly easy to overcome after the will was once aroused. There's no end or limitation to will force when awakened. The greater the man, the more awe he has for this subject. There's a glow that follows conquest of any kind; the mere call of the will to action brings a sense of power in the heart. There is no way more speedily to dispel pain, anger, passion, fear, or any of these tentacles of personality--than to summon the power of will to instant action. The particular matter of this precipice showed me a trick about calling up the force--priceless to me afterward in bigger tests, and for opening the way of self-conquest to boys. One must decide what one wants to do--then carry it out to the death. Discrimination, art, all culture and knowledge may be brought to bear in making the decision--but after that, it must be carried out--just that.