THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



This is by far the best prize that any student can carry 

 from college halls. 



One reason why men of genius so often fail to profit by 

 college education is that they possess inherent powers 

 of application along the lines of a strong native bent, 

 and the college curriculum cripples rather than aids 

 their volitional powers, by diverting them from an al- 

 ready fixed purpose. " Thrice happy," says Emerson, 

 "is the man who is born with a bias for some pursuit 

 that finds him always in employment." Why? Be- 

 cause he has an inherent volitional impulse toward a 

 definite goal. 



The man who is not born with such an inherent pre- 

 dominating impulse must develop such an impulse if 

 he would succeed in life. It is to this end that a proper 

 environment in childhood is so important. A properly 

 educated youth begins the battle with a developed power 

 of volition that almost insures success. 



But failing of such education and many a college 

 graduate does so fail what can be done to make 

 amends for the deficiency by self-culture ? Surely the 

 will cannot strengthen itself by willing to be stronger? 

 Not directly, it is true; but indirectly it may, through 

 the agency of the body with its habit-forming tendency. 

 Persistent willing in one direction is after all only a 

 habit of mind fully established. And habits, mental 

 or physical, are formed by action and by action only. 



Physical habits all have a mental counterpart, and 

 when the body has been trained to almost automatic 

 action in such lines as shall tend toward the desired goal, 

 the will has been enormously strengthened by the with- 



