The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-06-15
Will is Big Asset

Your will is your practical faculty, your
naughty servant, and your strict master.
Your will is the active energy of your be-
ing. 1t is the mighty within you which
effects the highest accomplishments. "The
spirit wills and the body must said the
old Stoics
Natural philosophers declare that to be a
man is to have will. cam l born man?
Being born man by possibility l may be
pope! So, pope | meant to make myself,
step by STEP" And he did.
Will is the key to all achievements in
life. The world of mans making is the
total results of his determinations. Pyra-
mids and tombs, castles and cathedrals,
canals and railroads, the great merchant
marine, manufactures which tower to the
skies or make up town, businesses which
reach out in the uttermost parts of the
earth-all those achievements are the re-
suits of great determinations.
The story of the life of great man, the
story put into his work, is the story of what
will can do. By will-power the sufferer
becomes an orator, the one handed man
becomes more skilled than he with two
hands, the blind man becomes accom-
plished, the deaf and dumb through will
ing themselves to attain unbeliev-
able success.
You may say that these things are phe-
nomenal rather then normal. You want
to believe in the normal power of will. Do
so. Instances are as common as day and
night. But it is the marveDs of will which
stands out in history and life, stands out as
ideas. incentives, effective examples.
The marvel of will astonishes us, and not
the least astonishing of these marvels is that
so much has been accomplished and is
every day accomplished with wills at war.
What has not will done even under the
most trying odds?
| All ethical philosophy is concerned about
the will, the will is the center of all moral
systems-and the philosophy of religion
makes Just as much of this form of mind.
| The transcendentalist says that will is
the divine power in man given him to con-
troll his vagrant impulses; that will is not
only the discriminating judge and the
commanding power but that it is the crea-
tive power as we'll. You imagine your
ideal and then day by day by means of your
will reproduce part of it in your life.
To the practical man will is the deter
mining forces with him-his volitional
power. He sincerely believes that where
there is a will there is a way, and that if he
has the will he may find it.
| The mind was made to be mans master
with the will as its executive officer. Will,
however, too often falls into the beaten
paths made for it by sentiment and desire.
1t needs to be controlled by strong reason.
And here we have round robin. Men do
not reason strongly without willing them
selves to do so.
Strangely enough, the world is fuller of
prescriptions for weak wills than of pre-
cepts for strong ones. Preventive measures
are just being fully worked out for this
mans life, and truly here an ounce of
prevention is worth ten pounds of cure.
Indecision often demoralizes a man more
surely than does a moral offense although
they often work togeather.
Will is a profound sort of energy that
can master every other energy within us.
Like every other energy it increases with
use and decreases if not used.
With decrease of use it becomes subject
to disease. Diseased wills are among the
commonest phenomena. You can often
see them go with galloping consumption.
But there is one hopeful thing about the
ashes of dead will. Will has the phoenix
like power of rising out of It's own ashes.
In all willing there is question of COM
handing and obeying. You who do both
have ever charming prospect in yourself.
You are your own commonwealth and
your own governor, and there is bound to
be happy state of things when the gov
erning class thus identifies itself with the
successes of the governed.-Ex.