VII 



THE WILL AND THE WAY 



THE will is the rudder of the mind. It does 

 not propel, but it does direct. The man 

 that has not attained stability of will power- 

 fixity of purpose is like a rudderless ship. He is a 

 human derelict in the vast purposeful ocean of life. 

 He must drift hither and yon with each chance current. 

 Unable to stem the tide, he must go with it, though it 

 carry him on the shoals, dash him ruthlessly among the 

 breakers, or sweep him into pitiless maelstroms. It 

 is will power and will power alone that can guide him 

 away from these dangers, enabling him to defy the 

 chance current, to breast the tide, to guide the bark of 

 life into remote, predicted harbors. 



In other words, it is will power alone that can assure 

 success in any field of life. An organism that lacked 

 this faculty must be purely passive, purely receptive. 

 Perception, memory, association of ideas might furnish it 

 the materials for self-consciousness. It could feel, re- 

 member, imagine, reason; but it would exist for itself 

 alone. It could never make its conscious existence man- 

 ifest. It could merely harbor the impressions that came 

 to it, giving nothing in return. 



The actual mind, on the other hand, is essentially 

 reactive. The same organism that is the medium of en- 

 trance of impressions is also the medium of response. 

 The character of the response is simplicity itself. It 



