"Bluffers of the right sort are only so when the occasion demands it, in order to give the impression that the wished-for result has already been achieved.
"As soon as their credit is assured and appearances have become realities that allow them to establish themselves in positions of security they at once cease the effort to deceive."
Our author concludes:
"Bluff, to be successful, must never be founded upon puerility or brag."
Now these two qualities are always to be met with in the doings of the man of effrontery, who only achieves by accident the goal he aims at, and then only in the most insecure way.
Drawbacks differing as to their causes, but equally unlucky as to their results, are born of the opposite fault--modesty.
It is high time to destroy the leniency shown toward this defect that old-fashioned educators once decorated with the title of virtue.
Time has forged ahead, taking with it in its rapid course all forms of progress, which, in its turn, has made giant strides.
Ideas have changed materially. Modern life has to face emergencies formerly undreamed of, and those who still believe in the virtue of modesty are their own enemies, as well as those of the people whom they advise to cultivate it.
The case of this man is similar to that of many others, whose meaning has been undergoing a gradual change due to the erroneous interpretation that has deliberately been placed upon it.