From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay *Self-Reliance* (1841). Select the word that fits the blank. "They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored ______ then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side."

Emerson is talking about resisting the pressure of consensus. *Abide by our spontaneous impression* in the face of *the whole cry of voices on the other side* requires standing firm — i.e. **not yielding**. "Inflexibility" — refusal to bend — captures this exactly. The qualifier *good-humored* softens it: Emerson wants firmness, but with grace, not stubborn anger. - "Flexibility" reverses the meaning — flexibility would mean *bending* to the crowd. - "Compliance" likewise yields rather than holds firm. - "Embarrassment" describes the wrong response (yielding from shame). *Good-humored inflexibility* is one of the signature paradoxes of Emerson's prose: gentle on the surface, immovable underneath.