AN EGOTISTICAL CHAPTER 259 



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 numbered, 

 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, uncertain 

 masses in the background. Hence they never cut 

 a brilliant figure upon paper, though they may be 

 capable of doing real heartfelt work. 



