WILL. 563 



were unwise ? Certainly there is no physical difficult}-. It 

 is as easy physically to avoid a fight as to begin one, to 

 pocket one's money as to squander it on one's cupidities, to 

 walk away from as towards a coquette's door. The difficulty 

 is mental ; it is that of getting the idea of the wise action 

 to stay before our mind at all. When any strong emotional 

 state whatever is upon us the tendency is for no images but 

 such as are congruous with it to come up. If others by 

 chance ofier themselves, they are instantly smothered and 

 crowded out. If we be joyous, we cannot keep thinking of 

 those uncertainties and risks of failure which abound upon 

 our path ; if lugubrious, we cannot think of new triumphs, 

 travels, loves, and joys ; nor if vengeful, of our oppressor's 

 community of nature wdth ourselves. The cooling advice 

 which we get from others when the fever-fit is on us is the 

 most jarring and exasperating thing in life. Keply we can- 

 not, so we get angrj- ; for by a sort of self-preserving in- 

 stinct which our passion has, it feels that these chill objects, 

 if they once but gain a lodgment, will work and work 

 until they have frozen the A-ery vital spark from out of all 

 our mood and brought our airy castles in ruin to the ground. 

 Such is the inevitable efiect of reasonable ideas over others 

 — if they can once get a quiet hearing ; and passion's cue 

 accordingly is always and everywhere to prevent their still 

 small voice from being heard at all. " Let me not think of 

 that ! Don't speak to me of that !" This is the sudden cry 

 of all those who in a passion perceive some sobering con- 

 siderations about to check them in mid-career. " Hac tibi 

 erit janua leti," we feel. There is something so icy in this 

 cold-water bath, something which seems so hostile to the 

 movement of our life, so purely negative, in Reason, when 

 she lays her corpse-like finger on our heart and says, "Halt! 

 give up ! leave off! go back ! sit down !" that it is no wonder 

 that to most men the steadying influence seems, for the 

 time being, a very minister of death. 



The strong-willed man, however, is the man who hears 

 the still small voice unflinchingly, and Avho, when the 

 death-bringing consideration comes, looks at its face, con- 

 sents to its i^resence, clings to it, affirms it^ and holds it 

 fast, in spite of the host of exciting mental images which 



