WILL 



WILL 



Deliberate Action. We have seen that im- 

 pulsive, purposeless actions become purposive 

 in time because of the pleasure or protection 

 from pain derived through them. If we ana- 

 lyze our own mental processes we see that a 

 deliberate act consists of four steps desire, de- 

 liberation, choice and action. 



Desire. Most acts yield impressions which 

 are retained. We recall the pleasure or pain 

 derived from an experience and wish to repeat 

 it, if pleasurable, and avoid it, if painful. A 

 pleasurable experience leaves a memory which 

 1 ids to a desire to have the experience re- 

 peated. In addition to our own personal ex- 

 periences we read and hear about pleasurable 

 experiences of others, and our desires thus ex- 

 tend beyond our own experience. We have no 

 desire for an experience that we know nothing 

 about. Again, we may have experiences which 

 are unpleasant, such as burning the hand on 

 hot objects, experiencing the bitter taste of 

 medicines, and feeling the irritation arising 

 from the association with some person with 

 whose temperament ours does not harmonize. 

 We strive to avoid these experiences. We even 

 put forth strenuous effort to avoid them; that 

 is, we have an aversion to them. 



Deliberation. People often have two or 

 more ideas or desires in the mind at once, and 

 can act upon only one of them. They may be 

 in conflict. For instance, a young man may 

 desire to go to college, but he does not have 

 enough money to enable him to complete a 

 college course and must earn a part of his ex- 

 penses. He has been offered a good position 

 in a mercantile establishment, with the prom- 

 ise of advancement as fast as he masters the 

 business. Shall he go to college or shall he 

 accept the position with the mercantile house? 

 Before he can decide he must weigh carefully 

 the advantages and disadvantages of each course 

 of action. Thus, a conflict of desires leads to 

 deliberation, which may be continued for days, 

 weeks or months, depending upon the 

 reaching consequences of the decision which is 

 \ ed. 



Choice. In time, deliberation leads to the 

 choosing of one line of action. We can see at 

 once that the choice of either course by the 

 young man makes the selection of the other 

 impossible. He cannot engage in business and 

 go to college. The opportunity to engage in 

 business is attractive, because it enables him to 

 earn money at once. On the other hand, its 

 acceptance would change hia life purpose, and 

 he finally decides upon the college course. 



Action. "Our grand business undoubtedly is, 

 not to see what lies dimly in the distance, but 

 to do what lies clearly at hand," says Carlyle. 

 Choice without action falls back dead. Unless 

 the young man acts upon his decision to go to 

 college he will never get there. This is true of 

 very choice; unless it leads to action it might 

 as well not have been made. This does not, of 

 course, apply to those choices which we are 

 prevented from carrying out by unforeseen cir- 

 cumstances that are beyond our control. More- 

 over, the moral effect of allowing our choices 

 to die without action is bad. There is an old 

 proverb to the effect that the pathway to thr 

 lower regions is paved with good intentions. 

 However true this may be, we know that tin* 

 man of mere resolutions never accomplishes 

 anything. 



Inhibition. The highest power the will exer- 

 cises is that of control. It not only starts ac- 

 tion, but it can also arrest it. For instance, if 

 you reach up to pluck an apple from a tree, 

 and just as you are about to grasp the fruit 

 discover a hornet on it, you arrest your action 

 instantly, then withdraw your hand. Some- 

 one makes you angry and you are about to re- 

 tort with sarcasm, when the "sober second 

 thought" arrests the impulse. You will recall 

 many similar instances if you analyse your 

 mental processes. The function of inhibition 

 is twofold to prevent mental exhalation by 

 closing the mind, as it were, to the many im- 

 pressions made upon it in daily life, and to give 

 self-control. If we acted upon every impres- 

 sion brought into consciousness, both physical 

 and mental exhaustion would soon follow. In- 

 hibition controls our action and leads us to ex- 

 pend our energies upon those things that we 

 think will be most interesting and beneficial 

 to us. Moreover, it enables us to control our 

 emotions. The Wise Man tells us that h. 

 who mirth his spirit is better than he who 

 takcth a city." Self-control, the second func- 

 tion, may be considered tin- downing act of 

 the mind. True self-control is possessed by 

 those whose intellectual forces and feelings are 

 subservient to the will and can be so com- 

 manded as to enable each to reach just the de- 

 gree of activity necessary to accomplish tin- 

 purpose at hand. He who possesses self-control 

 commands circumstances; he who lacks it is 

 commanded by them. 



Like oth.r artivitn-.. of the mind, the will is 

 loped by exercise, and it is the part of tin 

 parent and the teacher to see that such sur- 

 roundings and exercises are provided for the 



