The mirror., 1894-08-09
WILL POWER.

The action of the will determines the
destiny of man. Fortunes and mis-
fortunes, wealth and poverty, happiness
and misery are the results of the willis
direction. The will is something that
is under the immediate control of the
Individual; circumstances may intlu-
ence his action but he is free to do as
he pleases. Nature has not equipped all
persons with the same kind of disposi-
tion, or with the same amount of cute
ness or shrewdness, hence two persons
with equal will power may not achieve
to the same distinction. A person who
controls his will, will always succeed
in life. He may fall into error, make
false calculations and all that, but con-
sistent with his own will, he will always
win in the long run.
We find great many men, who swear
off certain bad habits, such as smoking,
drinking, playing games and etc., but
after shorter or longer time, the
pledges are forgotten or disregarded
and the old habit resorted to again.
This is lack of exercise of the power
of will that is possessed. No person
need smoke or chew, ETC., unless he wants
to, but by seeing others do it or to drive
off imaginary lOnesomeness or the like,
he will do so though his own conscience
condemns him. First, because he has
pledged in presence of friends he would
not do it. Second, because it does him
no good, yet he has the inclination with
out the strength of will to resist it; in
other words he don't try to resist his in
clinatiOns.
We call to mind man who was quite
a hard drinker; we knew him to swear
off three different times and to break
his pledge as many times; we asked him
why he did this, he said, first, that he
did not know, but added, that when he
swOre off he was each time determined
to keep his vow; yet as time passed on
his determination relaxed and he fell
back. Now, if he could control his will
one day, or week when his inclination
was strongest, he certainly could for a
longer or an indefinate period when his
inclination was less. The greatest num-
ber of petty crimes, and we might say
greater ones, for that matter, are the re-
suits of control and subsection of ones
will. Persons committing such acts,
know it is wrong; they know the result
which is inevitable; they know the
meagre advantage they gain though
they should escape detection; and they
know how much better they would fare
if they kept their hands off, they will
not restrain their evil inclinations, which
they could do, if they would make an
effort worthy Of themselves.
People have an inclination to keep up
with the times. A laborer or mechanic
wants to go to church, or places of
amusement as costly dressed as the
merchant or banker, though the income
of the former is only fraction of the
latter. He knows he cannot afford it;
he knows that he would be thought as
much of, if not more, if he robed him
self in garments that would correspond
with his income, but he will not try to
control his pride and deny his inclina-
tions; the result is he will run in debt
deeper and deeper, and very often dis
honest practices will be resorted to, in
order to put on such airs. All such
people as do not restrain their inclina-
tions are doomed to failure. The per-
son who is master of his will is the hero.
His word is his bond: he will always
keep his appointments; he will never
tell falsehoOd; he will follow his own
judgment and not be influenced by
others against his conscience, such per-
sons will succeed. Any one can do the
same; all there is to it is to be deter
mined to do the right thing every time.
If you have said no to any evil passion
or habit, let it be no with big n. If
you know certain conduct is not for
the best do not do 1t, make VOW to
that effect and stick to it; rather die
than break it.
SELF-DEPENDENCE