THE WILL AND THE WAY 



Let me give a typical illustration from every-day 

 experience. An ambitious young man determines to 

 make himself master of some particular branch of 

 knowledge, which judgment tells him will be of use to 

 to him; he determines, let us say, to acquire a foreign 

 language. He enters upon the task with enthusiasm, 

 studying several hours the first day and perhaps as 

 much each following day for a week. Then some- 

 thing interferes, and he skips a day or two. His enthu- 

 siasm begins to wane; and by another week he has 

 given up his task altogether for the time being. For 

 six months he fails to look in his books at all. 



Now here there has been no change of judgment what- 

 ever. The young man is just as fully convinced of the 

 desirability of mastering that language at the end of 

 the six months as he was at the beginning; perhaps this 

 realisation has grown upon him, rather than decreased. 

 Probably he makes some new resolutions, and "begins 

 over." But he merely repeats his former experience. 

 And very likely at the end of ten years the desire to know 

 that language is just as strong as ever, and the ac- 

 complishment not much greater than it was at the end 

 of the first week's study; a dozen starts and as many 

 relapses having been made in the meantime. I sub- 

 mit to the opinions of almost any competent observer 

 whether in his experience far more failures in life have 

 not been due to such volitional inconstancy as this than 

 to defective faculties of perception, recollection, or as- 

 sociation. 



But, on the other hand, the person gifted with voli- 

 tional constancy is bound to win. Such a one starting 



