578 PSYCHOLOGY. 



our effort as one wliich psychology will never have a prac- 

 tical call to decide, I must say one word about the extra- 

 ordinarily intimate and important character which the 

 phenomenon of effort assumes in our own eyes as individ- 

 ual men. Of course we measure ourselves by many stand- 

 ards. Our strength and our intelligence, our wealth and 

 even our good luck, are things which warm our heart and 

 make us feel ourselves a match for life. But deeper than 

 all such things, and able to suffice unto itself without them, 

 is the sense of the amount of effort which we can put forth. 

 Those are, after all, but effects, products, and reflections 

 of the outer M'orld within. But the effort seems to belong 

 to an altogether different realm, as if it were the substantive 

 thing which we are, and those were but externals which we 

 carry. If the ' searching of our heart and reins ' be the 

 purpose of this human drama, then what is sought seems 

 to be what effort we can make. He who can make none is 

 but a shadow ; he who can make much is a hero. The huge 

 world that girdles us about puts all sorts of questions to 

 us, and tests us in all sorts of ways. Some of the tests we 

 meet by actions that are easy, and some of the questions 

 we answer in articulately formulated words. But the 

 deepest question that is ever asked admits of no reply but 

 the dumb turning of the will and tightening oi our heart- 

 strings as we say, " Yes, I ivill even have it so!" "When 

 a dreadful object is presented, or when life as a whole 

 turns up its dark abysses to our view, then the worth- 

 less ones among us lose their hold on the situation alto- 

 gether, and either escape from its difficulties by averting 

 their attention, or if they cannot do that, collapse into 

 yielding masses of plaintiveuess and fear. The effort 

 required for facing and consenting to such objects is be- 

 yond their power to make. But the heroic mind does 

 differently. To it, too, the objects are sinister and dread- 

 ful, unwelcome, incompatible with wished-for things. But 

 it can face them if necessary, without for that losing its 

 hold upon the rest of life. The world thus finds in the 

 heroic man its worthy match and mate ; and the effort 

 which he is able to put forth to hold himself erect and 

 keep his heart unshaken is the direct measure of his worth 



