18 AN EGOTISTICAL CHAPTER 



how we admire the ready man, the man who always 

 has complete control of his resources, who can speak 

 the right word instantly! My own wit is always 

 belated. After the crisis is past, the right word or 

 the right sentence is pretty sure to appear and mock 

 me by its tardiness. 



There is, no doubt, a great difference in men with 

 reference to this knowledge and command of their 

 own resources. Some writers seem to me to be like 

 those military states wherein every man is num 

 bered, drilled, and equipped, and ready for instant 

 service : the whole male population is a standing 

 army. Then there are men of another type who 

 have no standing army. They are absorbed in mere 

 living, and, when the occasion requires, they have 

 to recruit their ideas slowly from the vague, uncer 

 tain masses in the background. Hence they never 

 cut a brilliant figure upon paper, though they may 

 be capable of doing real heartfelt work. 



