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 ITS 
 
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 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 Will power : its range in action / by J 
 
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 3 1924 029 112 195 
 
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The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029112195 
 
THE WILL POWER. 
 
" Where there is a will there is a way* ' 
 
THE WILL POWER 
 
 ITS RANGE IN ACTION. 
 
 J.MVI 
 
 MILNER FOTHERGILL, M.D., 
 
 "Author of 
 
 '■'thb maintenance of health," and "animal physiology for 
 schools. 
 
 gtta f or& : 
 
 JAMES POTT AND CO., 
 
 14—16 ASTOR PLACE, 
 
 1886. 
 
UNIVERSITY! 
 LIBRARY 
 
TO 
 
 STEPHEN OLDING, Esq., 
 
 THIS WORK IS 
 APPROPRIATELY AND RESPECTFULLY 
 DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
*' Tkt longer i live the -more I am certain that the great difference between 
 men^ between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant is 
 energy — invincible deter^iination — a purpose once fixed, and then death or 
 victory. That quality will do anything in this world: and no talents, no 
 circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged creature a man with- 
 out it" — FowELL Buxton. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE WILL 3 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE WILL IN RELATION TO THE INHERITED CHARACTER 21 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE WILL IN RELATION TO SELF-CULTURE t • 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WILL AND CIRCUMSTANCE 8l 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE WILL FIGHT . . . . .- • • I-? 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE WILL IN DISEASE 165 
 
THE WILL. 
 
CHAPTER I, 
 
 THE WILL. 
 
 ' I ""HIS is not a metaphysical enquiry, but a prac- 
 -*■ tical book ; a book which it is hoped will be 
 found useful by many, — especially those entering the 
 battle of life. 
 
 What the will is, is a matter upon which meta- 
 physicians have not yet been able to make up their 
 minds, after all the attention bestowed on the subject ; 
 and when they have come to some conclusion, either 
 of agreement or fixity of disagreement, the result will 
 have no practical value. " She has a will, she has ! " 
 the mother or nurse will say of some child then, just 
 as they have done, and do now ; and will do after 
 the learned word-weighers have arrived at their 
 decision. Will is one of the " little men who stand 
 behind us," mind, soul, spirit, will, intangible some- 
 things, revealed to us, — how ? We say he has a 
 
4 The Will Power. 
 
 " right mind " of a man like the late Dean Stanley ; 
 we speak of an " ardent soul " like the late Charies 
 Kingsley ; or he is " a man of spirit," like the late 
 Lord Palmerston, or " a man of resolute will," like 
 Prince Bismarck. But beyond this we speak of 
 " a comprehensive intellect " as in the case of the 
 late Count Cavour. We know these " little men " 
 in a familiar way'; but we can no more define them 
 than we dan put them up in Canada balsam, and 
 inspect them at our leisure under the lens of the 
 microscope. Yet we never hesitate to use the 
 words, nor is there any difficulty about their being 
 comprehended by others. When each word falls on 
 the ear it has not either an unknown or a doubtful 
 sound. ^A^ man may possess a sound mind, be a 
 good soul, in both senses, be of a loving spirit, and 
 yet not be remarkable for will-power. Like Mr. 
 Brooke in " Middlemarch," he may be poured into 
 any mould and keep shape in none. 
 
 A man may be possessed of much ability and yet 
 oe a practical failure, because he is irresolute, or 
 lacking in will-power. On the other hand, a man 
 may have but moderate abilities, and yet attain 
 great success because he 'possesses a firm will 
 
The Will. 5 
 
 George Eliot has brought out this contrast of 
 character in bold outline, in the difference between 
 Tom Tulliver and his sister Maggie in "The Mill 
 on the Floss." Tom is certainly narrow, as desti- 
 tute of imagination as ever a Dodson could be, 
 but he is inflexible. Maggie has warm sympathies, 
 an active imagination, intellectual capacity ; but she 
 lacks will. It may be impossible to define this 
 will ; but we understand what we mean by it 
 when we speak of its presence, or its absence. 
 When it becomes excessive, we speak of " wilful ; " 
 and no better illustration could be had, than that 
 of George III., of glorious memory, of whom 
 Landor said savagely, "he was the least mischievous 
 when he was the most incapable." Another of 
 our monarchs furnishes an illustration of an opposite 
 condition — " Ethelred, the Unready," where the lack 
 of will left him unprepared for emergencies. In 
 George III., we see the same hard, unyielding 
 obstinacy, as was. exhibited in the chararter of 
 George I. Argument fell dead upon these two 
 men ; they went their own way, yet neither were 
 men of capacity ! Whether in combination with 
 great talent or mediocre ability, it is the presence 
 
6 7 he. Will Power. 
 
 of what we call "will" which endows the individual 
 with "character." "Character" by no means in- 
 volves originality ; though when that is also present 
 we speak of the individual as " a great character " ; 
 a matter quite different from a "character" on the 
 stage, or the "character" of a Scotch village crowd. 
 It is scarcely possible for a man to be a really 
 great man, possessing influence over those around 
 him (who are not in his power) without a large 
 share of what we designate " will." 
 
 One family will have no striking characteristics, 
 yet always be respected from their decision of 
 character : while another family will have more 
 talent, yet be without influence upon anybody. We 
 value the opinion of one man, and are ready to 
 ask him for it; while another has perhaps more 
 mere intellectual ability, but no one ever dreams 
 of consulting him on any serious subject. One man 
 uses a series of arguments which affect us little, 
 we practically pay no heed to them : while the 
 very same arguments from another convince us. 
 We yield to one ; but will have none of the other. 
 It is the will which enables one man to carry out 
 what the intellect devises. " Unstable as water 
 
The Wdl. 7 
 
 thou shalt not excel," said Jacob of his first-born : 
 because it appears he had given way weakly to a 
 passion for Bilhah. There are a great many young 
 men who, like Reuben, go astray because they 
 cannot master an impulse, and fling away the past 
 and the future at the imperative bidding of the 
 present. There is no permanent excellence in those 
 who lack that will, which constitutes self-control in 
 the hour of temptation. Those who yield are lost ; 
 and the yielding is a crucial test of character : 
 though temporary yielding to temptation for the 
 time is found with some strong natures. A man 
 may sin as David did ; and repent of it in sackcloth 
 and ashes. But David was an exceedingly complex 
 character, in which good and bad were strangely 
 blended and' intermingled: he is stained with the 
 foulest crimes, and yet was " a man after God's own 
 heart," — not only when Samuel rebuked Saul and 
 told him his kingdom would pass from him, but 
 also when the Lord spoke to Ahijah (more than a 
 century later) of " My servant David who kept my 
 commandments and followed me with all his heart." 
 But the yielding to temptation, even when carried 
 out under the supervision of the intellect, and con- 
 
8 The Will Poiver. 
 
 trolled by prudence, is a dangerous experiment : 
 an attempt to quaff the cup of pleasure without 
 tasting the dregs. David tasted the dregs, and 
 they were extremely bitter! Depend upon it his 
 repentance was real. And a bitter repentance may 
 yet save a man, evidently, even when he has 
 sinned grievously. The whole story of the Hebrew 
 king is an instructive lesson to those who plan to 
 do evil ; and yet hope to evade its unpleasant 
 consequences. This is the moral aspect of will. 
 A man may walk warily along the path of sin, 
 and do evil by design, and apparently be successful ; 
 but few reasoning people would care to make the 
 experiment. As a rule we lapse into sin from 
 lack of self-control ; we do not walk into it 
 deliberately with our eyes open to what is being 
 done. "He is a brand that will not be plucked 
 from the burning," applies but to a small proportion 
 of us. 
 
 A man or woman may be wilful, or headstrong, 
 because there is a lack of proportion betwixt the 
 impulses and the controlling powers; as a horse 
 usually quiet may run away because he finds a feeble 
 coachman behind him. But there is a difference 
 
The Will. 9 
 
 between this being full of will, and mere wilfulness. 
 Napoleon Bonaparte was a man full of will; and 
 so was Pitt, who opposed him ; and the Duke of 
 Wellington, who beat his marshals one after another, 
 ending with worsting " the man of destiny " himself. 
 Wilfulness is seen most conspicuously in the spoiled 
 child. There is something almost majestic about the 
 one ; there is something contemptibly small about 
 the other. It is well to possess a fair proportion of 
 will; but it depends upon what proportion it bears 
 to other qualities whether a large development of it 
 is to be regarded as a blessing, or a curse. If there 
 be a large development of will in the character it is 
 well that there be a fair proportion of other strong 
 qualities, else the man is but a headstrong fool. All 
 the Angevin rulers were men of character, from Black 
 Fulk downwards ; but it was in John that the evil 
 elements most predominated. His determination 
 to get his own ends at any cost, dragged him 
 through the slough of the deepest debasement and 
 degradation. He would have his own way by fair 
 means, or foul. And the foul means to which he 
 resorted led to the Magna Charta; so that his 
 wickedness ultimately led to good. 
 
10 The WiU Power. 
 
 " I have said it, and I will do it ! " is admirable 
 wlien a man keeps his word under circumstances 
 creditable to him; but when the spoken word 
 is utilised to excuse and justify a headstrong career 
 it is a misuse — not a use of determination. It 
 is well to show determination of character in the 
 small things, as well as the great matters of life ; 
 but because a career has been determined upon, 
 and is an undesirable one, it is but an aggra- 
 vation of the offence to plead, "I have made 
 up my mind and cannot swerve from the path I 
 have chosen." Heathcliffe in " Wuthering Heights," 
 " never once swerving from his arrow straight course 
 to perdition," as Charlotte Bronte puts it in the 
 preface, was an irreclaimable ruffian, masterful 
 beyond everything. And a more repulsive character, 
 even an imaginative young woman like Emily 
 Bronte could scarcely conceive. It is quite clear 
 that it is possible under certain circumstances to 
 possess too much will. It is not well, indeed, to 
 be " lop-sided " in any direction ; otherwise, to lack 
 balance. 
 
 When there is a high development of will-power 
 along with a corresponding development of other 
 
The Will. 1 1 
 
 qualities, especially a superiority to the fear of death, 
 then comes the ideal hero of romance, the man who 
 can command everyone. The leaders of mercenaries 
 in the middle ages were men of this type, as the 
 Sforzas, even though sunk deeply in the vices of 
 their time. VPerhaps no exhibition of heroism was 
 ever more remarkable than when Hugo, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, bearded Richard Cceur de Lion, in the 
 church of Roche d' Andeli. In pursuit of war in 
 Normandy, Richard demanded more supplies from 
 his barons, and the bishop refused to supply any 
 men ; the see of Lincoln was bound to military 
 service he admitted, but only within the four seas 
 of Britain. Richard was not a man to be lightly 
 crossed, and Hugo was summoned to Normandy. 
 So enraged was the king with the spiritual peer that 
 when he presented himself in Normandy to answer 
 the charge against him, two friendly barons met him 
 to urge upon him the necessity for sending a con- 
 ciliatory message to the king before entering his 
 presence. The bishop declined the advice. The 
 king was sitting at Mass when the prelate walked 
 up to him and, despite the monarch's frown, said, 
 " Kiss me, my lord king." The king turned away 
 
1 2 The Will Power. 
 
 his face. Hugo shook him, and repeated his request. 
 "Thou hast not deserved it," growled the king 
 fiercely. " I have," returned the undaunted prelate, 
 and shook him all the harder. The king yielded, 
 the kiss was given ; and the bishop passed calmly 
 on to take part in the service. Mere indifference to 
 death could never have produced such a result. 
 There was something more. As well as utterly 
 fearless, Bishop Hugo possessed a will-power of 
 most unusual character, of which several instances 
 are on record. Not only did he face the king and 
 justify his refusal to supply men in the council 
 chamber afterwards ; but he went further, and 
 rebuked him for infidelity to his queen. " The 
 Lion was tamed for the moment. The king acknow- 
 ledged nothing, but restrained his passion, observing 
 afterwards, ' If all bishops were like my lord of 
 Lincoln not a prince among us could lift his head 
 against them.' " Such is the story as told by Froude. 
 Yet Richard was the last man to permit a liberty to 
 be taken with him, as his whole history showed. 
 Hugo was such a remarkable illustration of what 
 high will-power can do, that another story may be 
 related of him. King Henry Plantagenet had made 
 
The Will. 13 
 
 Hugo Bishop of Lincoln ; yet shortly afterwards, on 
 preferring a request for a prebendal stall for a 
 courtier, his request was refused. Hugo had 
 already braved his wrath once, and the king, despite 
 the episode of Thomas a, Beckett, was savagely 
 angry. Henry w^s with his suite in Woodstock 
 Park, and sat down on the ground pretending to be 
 mending his glove when the bishop approached 
 him. The king took no notice of his spiritual peer. 
 After a brief pause Hugo pushing aside an earl, 
 sat down by the king's side. Watching the royal 
 proceedings he remarked — "Your Highness reminds 
 me of your cousins at Falaise." Falaise was famous 
 for its leather work, and it was at Falaise Duke 
 Robert met Arlotta, the tanner's daughter, the 
 mother of William the Conqueror. This reference to 
 his ancestry was too much for the king, who was 
 utterly worsted in the discussion which followed. 
 
 A similar character is presented to us at the 
 present day in General .Gordon. It was not his 
 absolute indifference about his life which gained him 
 his ascendency. In China where life is held to be 
 of little or no moment, the absence of any fear of 
 death would go Httle way, and did not constitute the 
 
14 The Will Power. 
 
 basis of Chinese Gordon's ascendency; his secret 
 lay elsewhere. Nor did his supremacy in the 
 Soudan rest upon his bravery : for the Arabs of the 
 Soudan are as brave as any warriors in the world, 
 as our recent contests there testify. When Gordon 
 took a chair and sate himself down by King John 
 of Abyssinia, or presented himself alone to the Arab 
 sheiks who had sworn to take his life, it was not 
 his disdain of death alone which carried him through 
 both perils unharmed, or enabled him to hold 
 Khartoum. Equally implicit confidence in the pro- 
 tection of heaven has not saved others when in peril. 
 All the faith of Savonarola only led him to a horrible 
 death amidst torturing flames. But without this 
 indifference to their fate neither Bishop Hugo nor 
 General Gordon could have come unscathed out of 
 the terrible dangers they deliberately chose to meet. 
 Any fear of death certainly would emasculate any 
 man under these circumstances. The will' must be 
 
 accompanied by personal courage when danger to 
 life has to be encountered. The heroism of the 
 Jesuits, who laboured among the Red Indians early 
 in the history of Canada, was sustained by their 
 devotion, for many suffered terrible cruelties. 
 
The Will. 15 
 
 But no one of them ever possessed in a higher 
 degree that will-power which compels the obedience 
 of others than did La Salle, the pioneer of the 
 Mississippi. In George Washington we see a 
 splendid illustration of that power which moulds 
 other men, and compels them to follow its behests. 
 His patient sagacity rested on the basis of his will- 
 force, 
 
 A curious instance of the majestic power of will 
 was furnished by the story of the relations of the 
 late Benjamin Disraeli to the Conservative party in 
 England. An alien, handicapped by his early 
 avocations, at first the House refused to listen to 
 him. Yet irresistibly he rose step by step to be a 
 Conservative leader who " educated " his party ; and 
 at last was prime minister with a solid array of the 
 best bred Norman-descended patricians of Erigland 
 at his back, yielding ready obedience to his wishes ; 
 a leader of men — men, too, deeply imbued with 
 traditions : and also the personal friend of his 
 sovereign. Here what is meant by the words, " By 
 faith ye shall move mountains," was illustrated 
 vividly. 
 
 The house of Orange has furnished some striking 
 
1 6 The Will Power. 
 
 examples of the effect of the will. William the 
 Silent held his followers together by an iron will 
 that bent under no catastrophe, no disaster. It 
 refused to submit. A like character was that of 
 William, afterwards king of England. Men who 
 disliked him did his bidding. He inspired the 
 dispirited allies with his own resoluteness. When 
 his schemes were foiled by a defeat, he immediately 
 set to work to repair his losses, and deprive the 
 French of the fruit of their victory. That the house 
 of Orange possessed many grand characteristics will 
 be readily admitted ; but no one of their endowments 
 is more remarkable than their power of will. The 
 peculiar commanding power of leaders, no matter 
 whether regular like John Churchill ; or that of a 
 guerilla chief like Mina, in the Peninsula war of 
 Spain ; of the Red Indian Pontiac, who imperilled the 
 existence of Anglo-Saxons on the American continent; 
 or even of the negro commander Toussaint I'Ouverture, 
 seems not to depend on ability only : but upon cha- 
 racter in which the will-force is a leading factor. Men 
 with marked will-power come to the front in emer- 
 gencies, as seen in Oliver Cromwell, the fen grazier; 
 and Napoleon Bonaparte, the artillery subaltern. 
 
The Will. 17 
 
 In both these instances national convulsions pro- 
 duced the seething caldron from whence they rose ; 
 each to an eminence of position and fame. 
 
 They were heavily handicapped by their early 
 position, yet they rose superior to it. But amidst 
 all these men there rises up a woman even more 
 remarkable than they — La Pucelle, the village 
 maiden, Joan of Arc, who inspired courage into 
 the beaten warriors of France, and led them to 
 victory. The result of which was that with the 
 faith of the age, the English, when she ultimately 
 fell into their power, burnt her as a witch. In what 
 lay her witchcraft ? In her capacity to animate 
 others : which was really based on her will- 
 power. 
 
 In the following chapters an attempt will be made 
 to review the will in relation to other mental 
 qualities and endowments, and to circumstance ; 
 in the belief that some valuable matter for the 
 self-cultivation of youthful readers may be so 
 furnished. In the experience of others, — in their 
 self-culture, in their struggle with circumstance, 
 we may find what may also be interesting to 
 older readers, who can compare these with their 
 
i8 The Will Power. 
 
 own careers; and as being instructive to younger 
 readers who have their way to fight. From the 
 lives of others these last may see what to seek 
 after, and what to avoid. 
 
THE WILL IN RELATION TO THE INHERITED 
 CHARACTER. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WILL IN RELATION TO THE INHERITED 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 I "HE inherited character of individuals varies 
 -*- with what are called "family traits." That 
 is, one family will be known for its strict integrity, 
 while another is notorious for a lack of truthfulness 
 and is given to falsehood ; again, a third is stub- 
 born, while a fourth is vain, and a fifth vindictive. 
 Whatever the complexion of the character, the 
 family tint, or hue is observable in it. The amount 
 of will-power varies in the family as well as in 
 the individual. In some families the family-cha- 
 racter is strong, in others it is weakj and this 
 shows itself more or less markedly in each and 
 every individual member. In some families the 
 leading characteristic is amiability; while others 
 are blunt and rough in manner. Some families 
 
22 The Will Poivir. 
 
 command. The Norman characteristics are dis- 
 tinctly visible in our upper classes to this day ; 
 while the blunt unpolished ways of Cedric the 
 Saxon are as equally vividly present in other 
 families ; as in many of the statesmen of the North, 
 for instance. It is not a matter of culture, or up- 
 bringing simply, nor of mere table-manners ; but 
 an essential departure in character, as marked as is 
 the difference betwixt a stolid. Suffolk peasant and 
 the witty Irishman, albeit reared in a cabin. An 
 observant soldier of position told me some time 
 ago that the Norman characteristics were often to 
 be found as distinct at the present day, contrasting 
 with Saxon characteristics, as they were at the 
 battle of Hastings. In mental attributes as much 
 as in his appearance, he is a Norman ; and reminds 
 one most forcibly of the faces and figures of the 
 old Normans as seen in extant sculptures. The 
 offensive dash of attack of the Norman, and the 
 unyielding defence of the Saxon, were, he said, 
 to be noticed now. The national characteristic of 
 the Anglo-Saxon is that when iii contact with other 
 races they must submit, or perish. He is the 
 scourge of aborigines wherever he settles, from tlie 
 
In Inherited Character. 23 
 
 time of the early Cymri down to that of Maori wars. 
 The Celt under certain circumstances has outstood 
 him ; but the irreconcilable race-antagonism is 
 shown in the recurrent struggles of the Irish to 
 escape from, or cast off the Saxon yoke. The 
 Anglo-Saxon is essentially masterful though worsted 
 at Senlac ; and some are " masterful above every- 
 thing," as Felix Holt's mother said of him. When 
 little Captain Miles Standish went out to fight the 
 Red Indian in the dark, he was a type of the 
 Anglo-Saxon who claims to live where he pleases ; 
 and if the original occupiers of the soil, resent his 
 presence, then appeal to the sword becomes neces- 
 sary : with what result to the aborigines history 
 tells us. The negro has served the Anglo-Saxon 
 faithfully, and ever found in him a considerate 
 master, and the two on these conditions have lived 
 in peace without servile insurrections. The Maygar 
 and the Slovacks live together as master and servant 
 over the plains of Hungary : but the Slovacks have 
 often rebelled against their masters. They present 
 in this a totally different p'cture to that afforded 
 by the slave states of the North American continent 
 Possibly the Maygar and the Slovacks are not so 
 
24 The Will Power. 
 
 Possibly the Maygar and the Slovacks are not so 
 widely divided in intellect and character as are the 
 Anglo-Saxon and his whilom black-skinned serf. 
 Oddly, though the German is also, the descendant 
 of the persistent Teuton, and is of Gothic origin, 
 yet there is a striking difference between the Anglo- 
 Saxon and his German cousin. The Anglo-Saxon 
 preserves his Norse traits and marked individuality 
 everywhere and ever ; while the German soon loses 
 all evidences of being a " stranger within the gate," 
 and is quickly lost among the people with whom 
 he has cast in his lot. The Frisian, however, seems 
 to resemble the Anglo-Saxon to a great extent, as 
 seen in the Dutch Boers of South Africa. 
 
 That there are race characteristics we must admit : 
 the Anglo-Saxon is a born ruler, while the Bengalee 
 is the servant of successive waves of conquerors ; 
 while in Bohemia the German and the Czech (the 
 Bohemian Slav) are still in fierce conflict as to 
 which shall be master. In Alsace and Lorraine the 
 Teuton population had become distinctly French. A 
 Belgian superior recently told me that there was a 
 notable difference betwixt the Flemish boy and the 
 English boy in the matter of character. " You can 
 
In Inherited Charac er. 25 
 
 soon frighten a Belgian boy into confessing that he 
 has told a lie," he said, "but when an English boy 
 has told a lie he sticks to it." This shows one 
 aspect of the " sturdiness " of the English character. 
 Circumstances seem, however, to be at work at 
 present modifying the Anglo-Saxon character; and 
 the advance of modern civilization is not, in all 
 respects, an unalloyed good. The sea dogs of 
 Elizabeth's day have been largely transformed into 
 well-dressed middlingness of a sleek order, some 
 old-fashioned people are inclined to think. The 
 bull-dog qualities are largely passing away, giving 
 place to a smooth soft-handedness ; and the de- 
 scendants of the sea-rovers are largely charged 
 with the sleek retired-tradesman's characteristics. 
 Nevertheless, the old British character still shows 
 itself in the forces when called upon. 
 
 Masterfulness is strongly exhibited in some 
 families. The Guises had it ; and their Guise blood 
 in the Stuart kings brotight them into stern conflict 
 with, their English subjects. The Cromwells cer- 
 tainly had it. What says Froude of Thomas 
 Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry the Eighth ? " For 
 years his influence had been supreme with the king. 
 
26 The Will Power. 
 
 the nation, in the ferment of revolution, was 
 absolutely controlled by him ; and he has left the 
 print of his individual genius stamped indelibly, 
 while the metal was at white heat, into the 
 constitution of the country. Wave after wave has 
 rolled over his work. Romanism flowed back over 
 it under Mary ; Puritanism, under another, even 
 grander Cromwell overwhelmed it. But Roman- 
 ism ebbed again, and Puritanism is dead, and the 
 polity of the Church of England remains as it was 
 left by its creator. And not in the Church only, 
 but in all departments of the public service, 
 Cromwell was the sovereign guide. In the Foreign 
 Office and in the Home Office, in Star Chamber 
 and at the Council table, in dockyard and law-court, 
 Cromwell's intellect presided, Cromwell's hand 
 executed. His gigantic correspondence remains to 
 witness for his varied energy. Whether it was an 
 ambassador, or a commissioner of sewers, a warden 
 of a company, or a tradesman who was injured by 
 a guild, a bishop or a heretic, a justice of the peace, 
 or a serf crying for emancipation, Cromwell was 
 the universal authority to whom all officials looked 
 for instruction, and all sufferers looked for redre.ss. 
 
In biheyited Character. 27 
 
 Hated by all who had grown old in an earlier 
 system ; by the wealthy, whose interests were 
 touched by his reforms; by the superstitious, whose 
 prejudices he wounded ; he was the defender of 
 the weak, the defender of the poor, defender of 
 the ' fatherless and forsaken ' ; and for his work 
 the long maintenance of it has borne witness that 
 it was good, that he did the thing which England's 
 true interests required to be done. Of the manner 
 in which the work was done it is less easy to 
 speak. Fierce laws fiercely executed, an unflinching 
 resolution which neither danger could daunt, nor 
 saintly virtue move to mercy, a long list of solemn 
 tragedies, weigh upon his memory. He had taken 
 upon himself a task beyond the ordinary streagth 
 of man. His difficulties could be overcome only 
 by inflexible persistence in the course which he 
 had marked out for himself and for the state ; 
 and he supported his weakness by a determination 
 which imitated the unbending fixity of a law -of 
 nature. He pursued an object, the excellence of 
 which, as his mind saw it, transcended all other 
 considerations, — the freedom of England and the 
 destruction of idolatry; and those who, from any 
 
28 The Will Power. 
 
 destruction of idolatry ; and those who, from any 
 motive, noBle or base, pious or impious, crossed his 
 path, he crushed and passed over their bodies." 
 It remained to be seen whether his monarch could 
 resist him. He did ; because he too was a great 
 man, and Henry the Eighth took off Thomas 
 Cromwell's head. At a later day, a ruler quite as 
 tyrannical as Henry, with the taint of the Guise 
 blood in his veins, came into conflict with another 
 Cromwell ; and in that later struggle the monarch's 
 head rolled off on a scaffold. 
 
 What say historians of Oliver Cromwell, — not a 
 lineal descendant of Thomas but of his nephew, 
 the "golden" baronet of Hitchinbrooke, — the con- 
 queror of Marston Moor, of Dunbar, of Worcester ; 
 "the Lord of the Fens" first, and "the Protector 
 of the Commonwealth " at a later day ? Green in 
 his " History of the English People," says of him, 
 " Never had the fame of an English ruler stood 
 higher, but in the midst of his glory the hand of 
 death was falling on the Protector. He had long 
 been weary of his task. ' God knows ' he had 
 burst out to parliament a year before, ' God knows 
 I would have been glad to have lived under my 
 
In Inherited Character. 29 
 
 woodside, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather 
 than have undertaken the government.' Amidst 
 the glories of his aims Cromwell's heart was heavy 
 with the sense of failure.. Whatever dreams of 
 personal ambition had mingled with his aim, his 
 aim had in the main been a high and unselfish 
 one ; in the course which seems to modern eyes 
 so strange and complex he had seen the leading of 
 a divine hand, that drew him from the sheepfolds 
 to mould England into a people of God. . . . Like 
 every soldier in his army he held that by the 
 victories God had given them He had ' so called 
 them to look after the government of the land, 
 and so entrusted them with the welfare of His 
 people, that they were responsible for it, and might 
 not in conscience stand still while anything was 
 done which they thought was against the interes 
 of the people of God. . . . The Puritan was master 
 in the land. All government was in the hands of 
 godly men. Piety was as needful for an officer 
 in the army, for a magistrate, for a petty constable, 
 as for a minister of religion. The aim of the 
 Protector was that England should be ruled and 
 administered by 'the best men,' by ruling and 
 
30 The Will Power. 
 
 was no mere zealot. Strangely mingled with the 
 enthusiasm of his temper was a cool passionless 
 faculty of seeing things as they actually were about 
 him." Like his relative, when he saw a thing had to 
 be done, he did it without reference to the cruelty 
 which might be entailed therein. There is a certain 
 mercilessness in the purpose of both. The end 
 was the justification of the means 1 Allanson 
 Picton says of him : " The worth to mankind lay 
 in his power to meet a great emergency of revo- 
 lutionary violence, in the frankness with which he 
 accepted as the practical issue of the time a duel 
 to the death between prerogative and self-govern- 
 ment : in his capacity to inspire thousands with 
 his own enthusiasm ; in his predominant energy, 
 which forced distracted parties to unity of action, 
 in the prophetic fire that kindled into one flame 
 the religious zeal, the patriotic fervour, and the 
 personal devotion of his followers. By such 
 qualities alone, without aid of name or fame, he 
 made of the Eastern Counties Association an im- 
 pregnable stronghold for an otherwise desperate 
 cause. By such quahties he made his armies of 
 fighting saints a portent of sure destruction to 
 
In Inherited Character. 31 
 
 his opponents. And then, armed with those 
 weapons of his own creation, he manifested within 
 himself exhaustless reserves of power, which left 
 him without a rival in the final achievement of 
 victory. ... In that supreme position to which 
 Cromwell as truly as devoutly declared that he 
 did not call himself, but had been called by duty 
 and Providence, he made his brief rule on the 
 whole the richest in suggestions, and the most 
 imposing in its combined strength and purity of 
 all governments our land has yet seen. In his 
 insistance on an integral union of the three king- 
 doms, he gave true interpretation for the first time 
 in our history, to the decree of nature stamped on 
 the physical relations of the British Isles. In his 
 reconstitution of parliament and redistribution of 
 seats he anticipated, in some important points, the 
 Reform Bill of 1832. In his impatience of the 
 bewildering cost of Chancery proceedings, and his 
 bold efforts and simplification, he was two hundred 
 years — alas, we may say three hundred years ! — 
 before his time. In his pity for imprisoned debtors, 
 and his practical measures for their relief, he made 
 a substantial step towards the rational legislation 
 
32 The Will Power. 
 
 a substantial step towards the rational legislation 
 of a still recent day. . . . Indeed, it was to the 
 victories of peace, declared by his illustrious 
 secretary to be no less renowned than those of 
 war, that this true protector of British interests 
 looked as his purest pride. War was to him a 
 dread necessity, which none but madmen would 
 face lightly, and none but prating fools would 
 glorify as the chief end of man.'' 
 
 The likeness between the two Cromwells is strik- 
 ing. Their tremendous reach, their attention to 
 detail, their administrative capacity, their ruthless 
 pursuit of what they believed to be right, and, what 
 is more to the special purpose here, their mastery 
 over men, by dint of a resolute, almost omnipotent 
 will, declare their kinship. 
 
 The latter portion of Froude's portraiture of 
 Thomas Cromwell might indeed be read as a 
 description of Oliver, so close is the resemblance. 
 The two main points are the Protestant character 
 of each in their conflict with Church domination, 
 with Roman Catholicism in the one case. With " the 
 divine right of kings" in the other, supported by 
 the Church ; and their interest in the people and 
 their welfare, high and low alike. 
 
In Inherited Character. 33 
 
 And what was the ecclesiastical tyranny against 
 which the two Cromwells fought so strenuously ? 
 It was the fierce bigotry of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. The matter of the Guises has. just been 
 glanced at a little before ; it may claim some further 
 consideration now in reference to the union of will 
 with inherited qualities. James the Fifth of Scot- 
 land married Mary Guise. The bloody Guises were 
 bigoted ultramontane Catholics, fierce, arbitrary, 
 ruthless, cruel, false, and faithless. Ins.tinctively 
 they hated the spirit of Protestantism. They were 
 the embodiment of the aggressive spirit of the 
 Romish Church of that day ; the representatives of 
 that remorseless empire of the Church which 
 drenched Europe with blood. When Mary Guise 
 landed in Scotland, on June i6th, 1538, Froude 
 says of her, " Her person was a link which bound the 
 country to France and the Papacy. Her character, 
 at once fearless and' cunning, passionately religious, 
 and unembarrassed by moral scruples, qualified her 
 in no common degree for the remarkable part she 
 was to play." The description fits her renowned 
 daijghter as if made for her instead of her mother. 
 A bigoted Catholic, Mary Stuart was at once a 
 
 3 
 
34 The Will Power. 
 
 passionate, amorous woman ; an astute plotter ; and 
 as brave as an absolute contempt of death could make 
 her. She possessed also the power of attaching to 
 her intensely men in whose breasts there existed no 
 passion for her person ; their attachment was not 
 linked with love. Intrigue, scheming, conspiracy, 
 love-making, and fighting, in prison and out of 
 prison, formed her complex life. She would promise 
 anything ; but promise did not mean fulfilment to 
 human beings with Guise blood in their veins, 
 especially when made to a heretic Protestant. An 
 unfulfilled promise bears a suspicious family resem- 
 blance to a lie ; and unfulfilled promises and lies 
 were alike part of the equipment of the Guises. 
 Plot after plot against Elizabeth at last necessitated 
 the removal of Mary's head. Not that Elizabeth 
 thirsted for her blood ; far from it. We majf believe 
 the story of Elizabeth's reluctance to sign the death- 
 warrant ; can credit her passionate regret at the 
 tragedy of Fotheringay. State reasons compelled 
 Elizabeth's ministers to take the one, the only step, 
 which could put a stop to Mary's plans, viz., taking 
 her life. Whatever may have been Elizabeth's 
 faults, "the taint of the Boleyn blood," she recked 
 
In Inherited Characler. 35 
 
 as little about death as Mary herself. But if she 
 personally cared nothing for the assassin and con- 
 spirator, the nation and her ministers did. When 
 death and defeat came at last Mary met both like a 
 heroine. Yet even at the last she showed her 
 character, her innate falseness. " She intended to 
 produce a dramatic sensation, and she succeeded. 
 The self-possession was faultless, the courage 
 splendid. Never did any human being meet death 
 more bravely ; yet in the midst of the admiration 
 and pity which cannot be refused her, it cannot be 
 forgotten that she was leaving the world with a lie 
 upon her lips. She was a bad woman, disguised in 
 the livery of a martyr, and if in any sense at all she 
 was suffering for her religion, it was because she had 
 shown herself capable of those detestable crimes 
 which in the sixteenth century appeared to be the 
 proper fruits of it." The Guises knew how to die ! 
 
 Her son James, though not a Catholic, was by 
 nature opposed to Protestant instincts. He sought 
 a marriage alliance for his son amidst those very 
 Catholics against whom the English had fought so 
 stoutly. He hated the Puritan spirit, and strove to 
 rule Scotland by bishops. The Guise traits can be 
 
36 The Will Power. 
 
 noted in him. His character, was Hke a shot silk. 
 A Protestant king, Guise elements lurked in his 
 veins. He was not a genuine Calvinist ! 
 
 In Charles the First Guise characteristics showed 
 boldly. His craving for unconstitutional power, 
 his belief in the Divine right of kings to rule as they 
 please, his steady persistent contest to rule illegally 
 and arbitrarily, drove his people into revolt. Even 
 after his defeat he strove to sow discord among his 
 opponents to the utmost of his power. When his 
 fortunes were waning he tried to pit the Scotch 
 against the English parliamentary forces ; he 
 schemed to bring wild Irish kerns over into Eng- 
 land. When a captive he plotted and intrigued on 
 all sides just like his grandmother. His falseness 
 and his faithlessness at last procured for him his 
 grandmother's fate — the block and the axe. He died 
 as calmly, as regally as she did, with something of 
 the same dramatic action. Why did Oliver Cromwell 
 at last become convinced of the necessity for the 
 king's death ? " He changed because he found he 
 might as well try to build a tower on a quicksand as 
 to find any foundation for a lasting agreement in 
 the weakness and faithlessness of the king." Be- 
 
In Inherited Character. 37 
 
 cause Charles, in other words, was at heart a Guise. 
 In the kingly manner of his death " his long 
 misgovernment, his innumerable perfidies, were 
 forgotten." But historical research has revived the 
 memory of the reason why he perished as he 
 did. And he, too, knew how to die. 
 
 In James the Second the fateful inheritance of the 
 Guise blood is manifested in its different and varied 
 features. He was as brave in battle as any of his 
 race, though a poltroon in his last days in England ; 
 full of ardent Catholicism, he had his race's innate 
 hatred of Protestantism ; faithless and cruel he was 
 as any Guise before him. The horrible cruelties 
 of Judge Jeffreys in the- west, after the failure of 
 Monmouth's rebellion, remain in history as " the 
 black assize." Once telling a victim that it was 
 in his power to forgive him, James received for 
 answer, " It is in your power, but it is not in your 
 nature." James strove to restore the Roman 
 Catholic religion in England, and was not at all 
 scrupulous about the means he employed. Macaulay 
 says of him, " If, on the other hand, James should 
 attempt to promote the interest of his Church by 
 violating the fundamental laws of his kingdom 
 
38 The Will Puwer. 
 
 and the solemn promises which he had repeatedly 
 made in the face of the whole world, it could hardly 
 be doubted that the charges which it had been the 
 fashion to bring against the Roman Catholic religion 
 would be considered by all Protestants as fully 
 established. For, if ever a Roman Catholic could 
 be expected to keep faith with heretics, James might 
 have been expected to keep faith with the Anglican 
 clergy. To them he owed his crown. But for their 
 strenuous opposition to the Exclusion Bill, he would 
 have been a banished man. He had repeatedly 
 and emphatically acknowledged his obligations to 
 them, and vowed to maintain them in all their legal 
 rights. If he could not be bound with ties like 
 these, it must be evident that, where his super- 
 stitions were concerned, no tie of gratitude or 
 honour could bind him." 
 
 We know what the end was. England cast him 
 forth. The Guise-bred Stuarts could not impose 
 their yoke on the free spirit of England, or trample 
 it out. Dundee could not work a miracle ; yet 
 Sheriffmuir did not make a final end of the attempt. 
 It was not till " the clans at Culloden were scattered 
 in flight " that the essay made by Mary Guise and 
 
In Inherited Character. 39 
 
 her confessor Beaton was ultimately suppressed and 
 stamped out. But what a page has the struggle 
 betwixt the Guise fanaticism and the Puritanism 
 of Great Britain formed in the history of our country ! 
 And for that matter in New England too. The 
 marriage of James the Fifth had indeed far-reaching 
 consequences ! But alike in the two Cromwells and 
 these Guise-Stuarts, we see perpetually the fierce 
 will-power possessed by each. 
 
 The possession of will, but in combination with 
 a widely different grouping of other qualities, is mani- 
 fested in our two great Indian rulers, Robert Clive 
 and Warren Hastings. The first was a headstrong 
 lad who was the leader of all the idle youngsters of 
 his native place until at last his family got rid of 
 him in the shape of a writership in the East India 
 Company's service, — to make a fortune or die of 
 fever, as might fall out. But the existence of the 
 British in India became threatened abi ut that time, 
 and then Clive's qualities came to the fore and 
 carried him to eminence. His power of command 
 over others, which had made him the ringleader of 
 his youthful schoolfellows, elevated him in later life 
 to the position of a general who saved British India. 
 
40 The Will Power. 
 
 Warren Hastings was a man otherwise of totally 
 different character, who as a boy was fond of his 
 book, and loved to hear of the wealth and power of 
 his Cavalier ancestors and the forfeiture of their 
 lands as the price of their loyalty. "One bright 
 summer day, the boy, then just seven years old, lay 
 on the bank of the rivulet which flows through the 
 old domain of his house to join the Isis. Here, as 
 threescore and ten years later he told the tale, rose 
 in his mind a scheme which, through all the turns 
 of his eventful career, was never abandoned. He 
 would recover the estate which had belonged to 
 his fathers. He would be Hastings of Daylesford. 
 His purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, grew 
 stronger as his intellect expanded and as his fortunes 
 rose. He pursued his plan with that calm and 
 indomitable force of will which was the most striking 
 peculiarity of his character. When under a tropical 
 sun, he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, his hopes, 
 amidst all his cares of war, finance, and legislation, 
 still pointed to Daylesford. And when his long 
 public life, so singularly chequered with good and 
 evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length closed 
 for ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die." 
 
In Inherited Character. 41 
 
 It is a wonderful tale so briefly yet so vividly 
 told by Macaulay. The British Empire in India 
 has furnished other curious instances of indomitable 
 Wfill. In Clive it was blended with a recklessness 
 which led him to attempt his life in his first days 
 in India, but the pistol snapped, so he laid it down ; 
 and, at last, he died by his own hand. In 
 Hastings his whole life centred around a purpose 
 formed in childhood, and from which he never 
 swerved. It was in India Wellington gained his 
 first laurels as a commander. Napoleon sneeringly 
 called him " the Sepoy general " ; but all the same 
 the Sepoy general was too much for him when they 
 did meet. From his invincible will, Wellington was 
 spoken of as " the Iron Duke," and well he de- 
 served the name. 
 
 The combination of will-power with the other 
 mental endowments forms the character of the 
 individual ; and as regards success in life, the will 
 is the first numeral. Its proportion may vary from 
 one to nine ; and the value of the whole sum varies 
 accordingly. The other units are by comparison 
 only of small value. It is the will which utilises 
 the other qualities. A person may have splendid 
 
42 The Will Power. 
 
 endowments ; but without the requisite admixture of 
 will, these may all be in vain. It is the will which 
 gives determination and that perseverance which 
 converts the potential into the accomplished. 
 
 The day has gone by when critical analysis of 
 character is regarded as essentially hostile ; or to 
 investigate a character to involve " running down," 
 a most odious term, indicative of malice. We are 
 beginning, at the present time, to study character 
 analytically ; and to calculate its elenjents with the 
 same keen judicial scrutiny that we examine a hand 
 at whist, or the peculiarities of structure of natural 
 objects. We look at each card and determine its 
 value. See how many are trumps, and what they 
 are; whether the trumps are well backed up by 
 court cards; and then play accordingly. In the 
 natural object we see how the structure bears on 
 function in plant or animal. So with children. 
 Parents sometimes consult the phrenologist as to a 
 child's character, and what to put it to in the battle 
 of hfe. This is getting a stranger to do imperfectly 
 for them what they not only ought to be able 
 to do for themselves ; but even to do it a great 
 deal better. The family mind is as distinctly 
 
In Inheritid Character. 43 
 
 notable as the family physique, or constitution. 
 Hence parents should study their family traits and 
 qualities : and further should look into themselves ; 
 and not stop the inquisition if, and when, they come 
 upon something they do not quite like. That factor 
 has to be taken into consideration just as much as 
 the matters we are justly proud of. Self-introspec- 
 tion, which only recognises the good points of 
 ourselves, is imperfect and misleading. By such 
 combined outward and inward observation, they 
 would soon get the general outline of the character. 
 Then careful scrutiny of the child would furnish its 
 individual mental features. The amount of will 
 would represent the trumps in the hand at whist ; 
 the other qualities are the rest. The play goes 
 according to the cards. The child should be trained 
 according to what it possesses. If it has little will- 
 power, it may be well to place it where it can draw 
 a salary or a stipend. If it has a strong will, 
 giving perseverance and persistence, then it may 
 safely be sent where its efforts will affect its own 
 interests. The other qualities are not without 
 value. Of what value are nice manners or a 
 sympathetic nature to an accountant or a director 
 
44 The Will Power. 
 
 of a company ? These are of incalculable value, 
 however, to a medical man or a clergyman. 
 
 The estimate of what it is potentially should 
 determine the lot of each child. Not of course that 
 its future would always harmonize with the forecast. 
 But there would be a strong probability in its 
 favour, as compared to the present haphazard 
 method of meeting the difficulty : one parent leav- 
 ing the child to choose for itself; another deciding 
 its lot without the slightest reference not to its 
 wishes only, but even as to its capacities. Of course 
 so long as people will not make a study of character ; 
 and continue to regard such study as the pure out- 
 come of malice solely, so long they will pursue the 
 old tactics. Some suspend their self-introspection 
 when they come across something not pleasant ; 
 that, it would appear, is just the precise point when 
 it should be pushed resolutely. That indeed is 
 the very thing it is most essential to thoroughly 
 comprehend. We all have to live with ourselves ; 
 and it adds much to our comfort to be able to do 
 so peacefully and on good terms. To know our 
 weak points as well as our strong points is to pre- 
 vent other people playing on our weaknesses : just 
 
In Inherited Character. 45 
 
 as important a matter in life as to know our strong 
 points, and how to make the most of them. If the 
 bloody-minded Guise-Stuarts had practised such 
 self-introspection, had formed a just estimate of 
 themselves, on the one hand ; and as carefully 
 weighed the different elements in the English 
 character, on the other : they would never have 
 committed themselves to the struggle entered upon 
 — they would have seen that defeat was inevitable. 
 Old Vanderbilt, the New York financier, once gave 
 this notable advice to his son : " Sonny, never sell 
 what you have not got." He might have to pay 
 a deal more for it in its acquisition than he had 
 sold it for. So in determining how to place a child 
 in life, he should never be handicapped too heavily ; 
 or put to what he cannot do, what is beyond his 
 power. The proportion of his will to his other 
 qualities should always be carefully calculated ; 
 which will bear far more relation to the family traits 
 than to any individualism. One family is high- 
 principled, another of lax morals ; a third lacks 
 honesty ; a fourth cannot bear responsibility ; a fifth 
 is thrifty, a sixth extravagant. "The apple never 
 falls far from the tree.'' " As the old cock crows 
 
46 The Will Power. 
 
 so the young one learns." " Breed is stronger than 
 pasture." "What is bred in the bone will come 
 out in the flesh." "The fathers have eaten sour 
 grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 
 All these axioms are lights upon the subject. Both 
 Napoleons were bad men : but Napoleon the First 
 was a stupendous villain ; " Napoleon the little " 
 was a self-made emperor too, but after all he was 
 only a disreputable scoundrel. With the Napoleons 
 patriotism was nothing, and ambition everything. 
 With Oliver Cromwell and George Washington the 
 case was reversed. 
 
 In further considering the relations of the will to 
 the other qualities, the next most important unit is 
 the amount of principle we will find. 
 
THE WILL IN RELATION TO SELF-CULTURE. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WILL IN RELATION TO SELF-CULTURE. 
 
 " T HAVE begun several times many things, and 
 ■*■ I have often succeeded at last ; ay, and though 
 I sit down now, the time will come when you 
 will hear me " ; so said Benjamin Disraeli to the 
 House of Commons, when the members would not 
 hear him speak. Derision was all he got for his 
 maiden speech, but that did not daunt him ; and the 
 time came, sure enough, when the House not only 
 listened to him, but even acknowledged his mastery 
 over it. Disraeli had learned, what many another 
 man learns, that because he failed at first it did not 
 follow that ultimate success was unattainable. Per- 
 severance, mdustry, correction of laults of style, and 
 the baffled speaker came to be able to hold the House 
 spell-bound with his barbed shafts of rhetoric. He 
 soon attacked fiercely Sir Robert Peel, who was an 
 excellent speaker ; and the pungency of his remarks 
 
 4 
 
50 The Will Power. 
 
 taught the House to dread him, — at whom they once 
 had scoffed ! It must have needed great resolution 
 to face the House of Commons again after that 
 first terrible rebuff; but after the attempt had once 
 more been made, the rest was comparatively easy. 
 
 But in order to command success Disraeli had to 
 toil. He saw where his faults lay, and remedied 
 them. A man who fails, and will not see his 
 errors, can never improve. If he remains satisfied 
 that the fault lies entirely in others, no self- 
 improvement will, or can follow. He is stricken 
 with "the devil's palsy of self-approbation," and 
 will never achieve anything worth tlie doing. A 
 man's education at school does not fit him for the 
 fight of life, as is too generally assumed ; it is no 
 more than a preliminary training to teach him how 
 to work, how to battle with difficulties. The real 
 knowledge required for the business of life comes 
 after the schoolda3's are over. " I had such a bad 
 education, you see ; if I had had a better education, 
 it would have been different," says many a man, or 
 woman. Be sure that person will die in insignifi- 
 cance ! There is no power of "self-help" there. 
 I question very much whether the loan of Smiles's 
 
hi Relation to Self-culture. 51 
 
 well-known book "Self-Help" even would do any 
 good in such a hopeless case. John Hunter the 
 famous anatomist could barely read or write when 
 he was twenty years of age. Stephenson the 
 engineer taught himself to read after he had grown 
 to be a man ; so did Brindley. Drew grew up in 
 ignorance, and when he began to educate himself 
 he found " it appeared to be a thorny path, but I 
 determined, nevertheless, to enter, and accordingly 
 began to tread it." The difficulties of the task 
 are readily apparent ; the toil comes first, and the 
 reward afterwards. It is like climbing a mountain 
 to get the view from the top. The toil of the ascent 
 stands out prominently ; the view is long hidden 
 from sight. A child works for some tangible end, 
 to get to the top of the class or to gain a prize ; but 
 it usually has no wish to learn for the pleasure of 
 the acquisition itself. It has no glimmerings that 
 " knowledge iS' power " ; nor can it conceive the 
 delights of a well-stored mind. There are adult 
 children in this respect. Having left school, instead 
 of continuing their studies they begin to forget 
 what they learned there ; their knowledge, such 
 as it is, falls away piecemeal, until at last they 
 
^2 ' The Wiii Power. 
 
 reach a condition of intellectual nudity. They 
 read the newspaper without ever opening an 
 atlas; they talk about what they do not properly 
 understand, and then are surprised that their 
 opinions do not carry weight with them. They 
 never tried to give their opinions any weight ! No 
 wonder they do not succeed when they never even 
 make the essay. And yet they assert their equality 
 with other people who have striven, and earned by 
 the sweat of their brow a claim to hold a valid 
 opinion on many subjects. I once heard an observ- 
 ant lady-nurse say of a medical man with whom 
 she had to work upon one occasion, " He went 
 in for the easiest examination he could find, and 
 after he passed it, took good care he never learned 
 anything more." Yet it seemed he lived on very 
 comfortable terms with himself; and always gave his 
 opinion on professional matters as one who had 
 a right to speak, — untroubled by diffidence. 
 
 No man has ever attained real eminence who 
 did not toil; and for sustained toil a resolute will 
 is essential. The person who is readily wearied 
 can only be preserved from mediocrity by the 
 possession of remarkable powers ; and these last 
 
In Relation to Selj-cuiture. 53 
 
 but few possess. " How much I could do if I 
 tried ! " is the pose of many persons ; especially 
 young persons, who think it is grand to be pos- 
 sessed of capacities, which are of little worth if 
 not cultivated. What would be thought of a man 
 who had a garden overgrown with weeds ; and 
 pointed to the luxuriance of their growth as an 
 evidence of the excellent quality of the soil, adding, 
 " See what it would grow if I cultivated it " ? All 
 would think him a fool; and yet many young 
 persons pride themselves upon their mind-gardens 
 being in a neglected state. Whatever may be the 
 impression made on onlookers as to the quality of 
 the soil, it is clear that it would pay the owner 
 much better to cultivate the garden than thus to 
 leave it to run wild. The young person who wishes 
 to be thought clever, to be taken upon trust indeed, 
 instead of proving the possession of ability by 
 accomplishing something, is no good to himself or 
 herself; and will certainly exercise no beneficial 
 influence upon others, though maybe a pernicious 
 one. Some young people give themselves a great 
 many airs about what they are going to do in 
 life ; and take credit for the unaccomplished. 
 
54 The Will Power. 
 
 Accomplished facts are hard coin ; unrealised as- 
 pirations are promissory notes, which may never 
 be cashed. To people who have worked and done 
 something, these " promissory notes " do not 
 represent cash ; though the givers wish them to 
 be accepted as such — in the estimation of others ! 
 Unrealised aspirations are not worth much ; like 
 doubtful bills, they would have to pay a tremendous 
 discount for being cashed. Yet persons go about 
 in the world on the strength of a little actually 
 accomplished, and a great deal that is going 
 to be done, and expect others to treat them as if 
 the latter were actually performed. If a man goes 
 about giving promissory notes (presuming others 
 would accept them), he would soon be thought 
 an impostor if he did not take them up. The 
 young gentleman who claims a position on the 
 strength of unreahsed aspirations is an intellectual 
 impostor. The claim founded on what is going to 
 be is often as offensive as that sort of piety which, 
 on the strength of the position its owner is going 
 to occupy in another world, gives itself airs in this. 
 
 " Genius is patience. What I am I have made 
 myself," said Sir Humphrey Davy. 
 
In Relation to Self- culture. 55 
 
 " It is not every one who can command success, 
 But we'll do more, Sempronius : we'll deserve it," 
 
 Addison makes one of his characters say. "The 
 best part of every man's education is that which he 
 gives to himself," said Sir Walter Scott, vA\o was 
 regarded as a " stupid " at school. It is downright 
 hard self-imposed work which makes the complete 
 man. A boy can learn tasks, but to do that is not 
 enough ; when a man believes that knowledge is 
 power, then he feels he can never have enough of 
 it. That is the difference betwixt a mere clever 
 boy and an industrious man. Gibbon knew what 
 hard work meant; and his opinion is that "every 
 person has two educations : one which he receives 
 from others, and one, more important, which he 
 receives from himself." And every man, and 
 woman too, who has done anything in the world, 
 knows that it is the after-school education of the 
 individual which affects the end mainly. It is not 
 the education which they have had from others, 
 though of course that has its value ; but the educa- 
 tion which they have given themselves that has 
 brought about the result, when result is attained. 
 Those who bewail the inefficient education they 
 
50 The Will Power. 
 
 have had given them usually have neglected the 
 other personal education altogether, and, to use a 
 colloquial phrase, " stick in the mud " accordingly. 
 But it is not likely they would comprehend, or credit 
 the last if pointed out to them. A man may not 
 have great abilities, but he can take pains if he 
 chooses. He can use such talent as he has, and 
 say with Jean Paul Richter, " I have made as much 
 out of myself as could be made out of the stuff, 
 and no man should require more." A man cannot 
 give himself powers, that is true. But he can use 
 what powers he does possess. " I am as clever as 
 I can make myself," he may be able to say, and 
 to say honestly. He Cannot increase the talent 
 given him ; but is he always sure about the amount 
 of talent possessed ? He can only tell this by doing 
 his best. Sometimes he begins to believe in time 
 that he has really more talent than he once gave 
 himself credit for, or than others credited him with. 
 Youthful cleverness often ends in a mature medi- 
 ocrity. Others, again, are " late pears," as Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes happily expresses it. " And that 
 leads me to say," he continued, " that men often 
 remind me of pears in their way of coming to 
 
In Relation to SelJ-aihure. 57 
 
 maturity. Some are ripe at twenty, like human 
 jargonelles, and must be made the most of, for their 
 day is soon over. Some come into their perfect 
 condition late, like the autumn kinds, and they last 
 better than the summer fruit ; and some that, like 
 the winter-nelis, have been hard and uninviting 
 until all the rest have had their season, get their 
 glow and perfume long after the winter frost and 
 snow have done their worst with the orchards. 
 Beware of rash criticisms ; the rough stringent fruit 
 you condemn may be an autumn or a winter pear, 
 and that which you picked up beneath the same 
 bough in August may have been only its worm-eaten 
 windfalls. Milton was a Saint-Germain -with a 
 graft of the roseate Early Catharine. Rich, juicy, 
 lively, fragrant, russet-skinned old Chaucer was an 
 Easter Eeurre ; the buds of a new summer were 
 sweUing when he ripened." If a young man of 
 moderate abilities strove hard and long, he might 
 have the agreeable surprise of finding that he was 
 " a late pear" ; and that his day of actual talent had 
 come at last. A hard-headed north countryman, 
 himself a "late pear," in speaking of himself, says, 
 " I budded late ! " But he wears well. Some 
 
58 The Will Power. 
 
 families come to the full possession of their powers 
 only when well on in life, they mature late ; others 
 furnish brilliant school prize-takers, who win college 
 honours, after which they disappear, and are no 
 more seen or heard of. 
 
 Steady, persistent application is the best means, 
 often the only means, of finding out if there be 
 any prospect of the toiler being " a late pear." 
 Certainly this labour enables him to use such 
 talent as is in him. Young people are apt to 
 sympathise with unsuccessful persons who by their 
 own account were so clever, only the world used 
 them badly. Youth, which has not made the essay, 
 and age, which has made it and failed, are likely to 
 be in more sympathy with each other than are 
 the successful and the unsuccessful. Perhaps the 
 successful have little syrnpathy with, or pity for, 
 those who have not achieved success ; from whatever 
 reason. The unsuccessful person is often very 
 specious ; and youth is not experienced, and cannot 
 discriminate where the secret of the failure lies. 
 Perhaps this was because the social failure was 
 only a fair-weather sailor, and when hard times 
 came could not ride out the gale I What said John 
 
In Relation to Self-ailture. 59 
 
 Hunter ? " Is there one whom difficulties dishearten, 
 who bends to the storm ? He will do little. Is 
 there one who will conquer ? That kind of man never 
 -fails." The story of Richard Arkwright the cotton 
 spinner is a most instructive one. He never went 
 to school, and was apprenticed to a barber and 
 wig-maker. Wig-making went out of fashion, and 
 shaving alone was a poor affair. But Arkwright, 
 while he shaved, toiled away at the idea of a 
 spinning machine until he was in great poverty. 
 Nevertheless he held on to his idea, and turned 
 his mind to clock-making. At last he got the 
 invention patented, and after unending toil he 
 perfected it ; only to find the mob rise against him 
 as the inventor of a labour-saving machine. Then 
 the manufacturer turned against him, and would 
 not buy his machines ; after that using his invention, 
 but refusing to pay the patent-right. Nevertheless 
 Arkwright persevered, and beat every combination 
 against him. At fifty years of age he studied the 
 English grammar in order to speak more correctly ; 
 became high sheriff for Derbyshire, and was 
 knighted before he died. , Nothing could stop him ; 
 but the difficulties he had to surmount would have 
 
6o The Will Power. 
 
 been too great, too numerous, for a man of less 
 resolute will. 
 
 These stories of perseverance rewarded at last, 
 and only after long strain upon the determination, 
 are specially valuable for the young at the present 
 time. However it has come about, there is no 
 denying the fact that there is at the present time 
 abroad a spirit of wilful perfunctoriness. It extends 
 from the lowest to the highest in the land. The 
 trades-union prevents those of its members who could 
 rise above mediocrity from attempting to do so. If 
 one man does more work than his fair share, he is 
 taking away work from others, it is argued. Our 
 domestics stipulate for so much, and no more work 
 being expected from them in return for their wages 
 In those above them the aim too often is to just do the 
 amount of work that will enable them to draw their 
 pay. Mr. Banting's clerk, who when remonstrated 
 with for coming so late in the morning, explained 
 that "if such was the case, he at least was the first 
 to go," was spokesman for this class. It is a spirit 
 which does not seem to be ashamed of itself. Per- 
 functory discharge of duty with punctiliousness as 
 to rights is the dwarfing tendency abroad at present. 
 
In Relation to Self-culture. 6i 
 
 It is a hopeless Islamic spirit, and can lead to no 
 good result ; except to necessary reaction in time. 
 Generous readiness to work seems passing away : 
 though it is certain that a reaction is not very far 
 off; when the sharper youths will see how it will 
 advantage themselves to toil willingly and freely. 
 But in the meantime it is piteous to see men so 
 afraid of work. The paltry pieces of idleness to 
 which some persons will stoop seem too petty, too 
 trifling, to be worth the studying. And when there 
 is a team at work, if one pulls slack, another begins 
 to think it is an example to be followed : if one does 
 not do his best, why should another ? The infection 
 spreads until the -whole team pull slack; and then 
 the effect is apparent enough. The young man of 
 the present day" reminds me of a story told me of 
 an omnibus horse. It was a Belgian, and took 
 things easy. An Irish gentleman riding on the 
 omnibus one day remarked to the driver, pointing 
 to the horse, " He's an injanious baste, that ! " The 
 horse was no favourite with the coachman, who 
 gruffly asked "how he made that out." "Sure," 
 he explained, " I have watched him all the way from 
 Holloway to Brompton, and he has followed his 
 
62 The Will Power. 
 
 collar all the way, and has nivver caught it onst, 
 begorra ! " These young people only " follow the 
 collar " ; they never throw their weight into it. On 
 suggesting to an overworked man one day to get 
 some help, he replied bitterly, " What is the good 
 of getting a man ? He will only see how late he can 
 come, and how soon he can go, and how little he 
 can do when at the office ! " It is a matter for 
 national regret that this enervating, emasculating 
 doctrine is so widely accepted. The spirit of it is 
 so Philistine, so detrimental and injurious to the 
 holders' best interests. It is in direct antagonism to 
 the precept "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
 with thy might.'' And what follows ? " For there is no 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
 grave, whither thou goest." The worst of it all is 
 that it is so perilously easy to follow a bad example. 
 Men who have made their mark in the world 
 are the men who never spared themselves ; who 
 have not only formed grand schemes, but who have 
 laboured at details. An error in a detail may at 
 some time of emergency be fatal to a grand scheme. 
 Watch a young Prussian subaltern drilling a few 
 men. He gives his whole mind to it. He is fully 
 
In Relation to SelJ-culture, 63 
 
 imbued with the consciousness that upon him and 
 his handful of men at some critical moment great 
 issues may depend. He knows the difference 
 betwixt doing his work in a perfunctory manner 
 and giving his mind to it — going into it heart and 
 soul. "We cannot leap from our shadow"; and 
 if he and his men habitually did their work in a 
 careless half-hearted way, the day might come when 
 in an important emergency they might be on out- 
 post duty, and their habitual remissness might then 
 be fatal to them ; and, what is more, to their 
 comrades whose safety lies in their diligence. The 
 habit of doing everything thoroughly is one well 
 worth acquiring. " If a thing is worth doing at 
 all, it is worth doing well ! " 
 
 This class of wilful beings, determined not to do 
 their best, are a more objectionable class than the 
 procrastinators ; who are tiresome enough, however. 
 These never do to-day what can be put off till to- 
 morrow. They mean well, but 
 
 " There's a little mischief-making' 
 Elfin, who is ever nigh, 
 Thwarting every undertaking, 
 And his name is ' By-and-By.' " 
 
64 The Will Fowet. 
 
 Or they are always so occupied they can never find 
 time for anything extra. "When I can find time 
 .1 will do it " is a fatal sentence too often ; for the 
 time never comes! That "time" has to be "mad^"; 
 and " it is only the busy men who can find time 
 for everything," a lady once wrote me. The man 
 or woman who has learned to work, to value time, 
 always knows how to " make " time. What a 
 wonderful triumph over circumstances it is when a 
 man or woman can " make " time ! They make 
 time in finding time to do what is required. It is 
 amusing if it were not sad to find men, who have 
 never achieved anything remarkable, complaining of 
 not having time. Not having time is rarely pleaded 
 by busy meri ; unless it be something making very 
 extensive demands upon their time. Perhaps the 
 excuse of not having time with non-workers is 
 true in the sense that through doing little, they do 
 not know the value of working methodically ; which 
 if they did, would enable them to find time. But 
 " not having time " is too frequently an excuse ; and 
 " an excuse is a guarded lie ! " The man who 
 pleads " no time " often sadly deceives himself. 
 The excuse is a "guarded lie," and to himself 
 
In Relation to Self-culture. 65 
 
 too, far more than any one else. " I have no"t had 
 the time" is the common excuse of an indifferent 
 feminine correspondent for not having answered a 
 letter promptly ; when all the time of the delay she 
 has had hard work to kill time, scarcely knowing 
 what to do with herself, or how to get through the 
 day, if it were not for the numerous meals : always 
 numerous in idle households ! 
 
 This may all be an unflattering picture of an 
 aspect of the present day which is not particularly 
 attractive. 
 
 As a man succeeds iii life he finds out his powers, 
 if properly cultivated ; which expand to meet the 
 growing demands upon him. He finds himself 
 readier of resource to meet a difficulty, readier to 
 decide in an emergency ; in fact the fitter for his 
 training to play a more conspicuous part in life's 
 drama. His natural character becomes strengthened 
 as it matures ; and he is conscious of this waxing 
 power. Having learned how to command himself, 
 he_ is fit to command others ; and not only that, but 
 to set an example, which we know is " greater than 
 precept." When he can point to himself as an 
 example of well-won success, his precept will have 
 
 5 
 
66 The Will Power. 
 
 tenfold weight. The advice of an unsuccessful man 
 is rarely of much worth ; for how can he com- 
 municate a secret to others which he has never 
 found out for himself? Self-culture is its own 
 reward, not only as to the realization of success 
 in life, but also as to the inward self-communion. 
 When a mind can revel amidst its own resources, 
 it is always anxious to encourage others to toil, and 
 to be able to enjoy the same exquisite pleasure. 
 But the others do not experience these pleasures, 
 and often cannot believe in their existence ; their 
 altruism is insufficient to make them emulate them, 
 or try to be able to do the same. They plod along 
 the watercourse of habit, as it were, believing there 
 is no other path, with a well-beaten highway not 
 far off, because they will not make the effort 
 requisite to mount the banks and gain it ; and they 
 do not make the effort because they do not, and will 
 not believe that the said highway exists. If they 
 cannot be induced to believe what others say, they 
 can and will do nothing, for they possess no 
 inward consciousness to guide them. It must 
 necessarily be a matter of faith, — which they do not 
 possess. 
 
In Relation to Self-culture. 67 
 
 In reading about well-known men one interesting 
 matter is their " self-help," their own education, and 
 the evolution of their volitional dynamics, or will- 
 power. It is curious to review the female influences 
 to which they have been subjected, or to which they 
 have chosen to submit themselves. The mother's 
 influence and character seem to have been strong in 
 Cromwell, Napoleon, and George Washington ; while 
 the wife's influence with Cromwell and Washington 
 does not seem to have been marked, though in 
 Napoleon it was pre-eminent. Cromwell told his 
 wife after Dunbar, "Thou art dearer to me than 
 any creature ; let that suffice." And from the con- 
 text, it would seem, Mrs. Cromwell repined some- 
 what at his cool attitude toward her ; though his 
 solicitude for "the two little wenches,'' his young 
 daughters, testifies to the fact that his home-ties 
 lay near his heart. In both the cases of Washing- 
 ton and Cromwell the mother saw the Divine 
 guidance in her son's success. Of Josephine Beau- 
 harnais something will be said shortly. As to the 
 wife's influence upon another world-renowned cha- 
 racter, Macaulay tells us in reference to Sarah, wife 
 of John Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, 
 
68 The Will Power. 
 
 "Among the gallants who sued for her favour, 
 Colonel Churchill, young, handsome, graceful, in- 
 sinuating, eloquent, and brave, obtained the prefer- 
 ence. He must have been enamoured indeed. For 
 he had little property except the annuity which he 
 had bought with the infamous wages bestowed on 
 him by the Duchess of Cleveland ; he was insatiable 
 of riches, Sarah was poor; and a plain girl with 
 a large fortune was proposed to him. His love, 
 after a struggle, prevailed over his avarice ; marriage 
 only strengthened his passion; and, to the last hour 
 of his life, Sarah enjoyed the pleasure and the 
 distinction of being the one human being who was 
 able to mislead that far-sighted and sure-footed judg- 
 ment, who was fervently loved by that cold heart, 
 and who was terribly feared by that intrepid spirit." 
 But Sarah was evidently a woman of remarkable 
 influence, or " will-power,'' and her rulie over her 
 husband is perhaps even less extraordinary than 
 her command over the hard, narrow nature of 
 .Queen Anne, as seen in that long correspondence 
 between the two, where Anne was " Mrs. Morley " 
 and Sarah "Mrs. Freeman." 
 
 Far different is the story of Napoleon Bonaparte 
 
In Relation to Self -culture. 69 
 
 and -the beautiful Josephine, which is full of pathos. 
 Josephine Beauharnais was a Creole and the widow 
 of General Beauharnais, who died in consequence 
 of suspicions on the part of Robespierre. Her son 
 Eugene went to Napoleon, then General of the 
 Interior, to ask for his father's sword. So struck 
 was the young soldier of fortune, just beginning to 
 rise in the world, with the boy that he sought the 
 acquaintance of his mother, a lady " with a remark- 
 ably graceful person, amiable manners, and an 
 inexhaustible fund of good-nature." Though a 
 year or two older than himself. Napoleon soon fell 
 deeply in love with the charming widow, and their 
 marriage may fairly be termed a "love match." 
 She was a woman of good judgment, who exercised 
 the very happiest influence over her by-no-means- 
 manageable spouse to the last hour of her sway. 
 "The claims of Josephine on her husband's affec- 
 tions were as numerous as could be possessed by 
 a wife. She had shared his more lowly fortunes, 
 and, by her management and address, during his 
 absence in Egypt, had paved the way for the 
 splendid success which he had attained on his 
 return. She had also done much to render his 
 
70 The Will Power. 
 
 government popular, by softening the sudden and 
 fierce bursts of passion to which his temperament 
 induced him to give way. No one could understand 
 like Josephine the peculiarities of her husband's 
 temper; no One dared, like her, to encounter his 
 displeasure, rather than not advise him for his 
 better interest; no one could possess such good 
 opportunities of watching the fit season for inter- 
 cession ; and no one, it is allowed on all hands, made 
 a more prudent or a more beneficent use of the 
 opportunities she enjoyed. The character of 
 Bonaparte, vehement by temper, a soldier by 
 education, and invested by fortune with the most 
 despotic power, required peculiarly the moderating 
 influence of such a mind, which could interfere 
 without intrusion, and remonstrate without offence. 
 "To maintain the influence over her husband, 
 Josephine made not only unreluctantly, but eagerly, 
 the greatest personal sacrifices. In all the rapid 
 journeys which he performed, she was his companion. 
 No obstacle of road or weather was permitted to 
 interfere with her departure. However sudden the 
 call, the Empress was ever ready ; however untimely 
 the hour, her carriage was in instant attendance. 
 
In ^Relation to Self- culture. 71 
 
 " The influence which she maintained by the 
 sacrifice of her personal comforts was used for the 
 advancement of her husband's best interests, the 
 relief of those who were in distress, and the averting 
 the consequences of hasty resolutions, formed in 
 a moment of violence or irritation. Besides her 
 considerable talents and her real beneficence of 
 disposition, Josephine was possessed of other ties 
 over the mind of her husband. The mutual passion 
 which had subsisted between them for many years, 
 if its warmth had subsided, seems to have left 
 behind affectionate remembrances and mutual 
 esteem. The grace and dignity with which 
 Josephine played her part in the imperial pageant 
 was calculated to gratify the pride of Napoleon, 
 which might have been shocked at seeing the 
 character of empress discharged with less ease 
 and adroitness, for her temper and manners enabled 
 her, as one easily accustomed to the society of 
 persons of political influence, to conduct herself 
 with singular dexterity in the intrigues of the 
 splendid and busy court, where she filled so im- 
 portant a character. 
 
 "Lastly, it is certain that Bonaparte, who, ike 
 
72 The Will Power. 
 
 many of those who affect to despise superstition, 
 had a reserve of it in his own bosom, believed 
 that his fortunes were indissolubly connected with 
 those of Josephine ; and loving her as she deserved 
 to be beloved, he held his union with her the more 
 intimate that there was attached to it, he thought, 
 a spell affecting his own destinies, which had ever 
 seemed most predominant when they had received 
 the recent influence of Josephine's presence " (Scott's 
 " Life of Napoleon Bonaparte "). 
 
 Such then was the wife Napoleon put away 
 because he had no heir to his mighty empire — the 
 counterpart of Charlemagne's, he proudly held. He 
 had dictated terms to Austria in Vienna. He had 
 made a truce with Russia on the extreme eastern 
 frontier of Prussia. All Germany lay at his feet. 
 Italy owned him as her master. Spain had been 
 annexed. France of course was his. No one, indeed, 
 since the day of Charlemagne had looked on such an 
 empire. But ambition overcame love, and even the 
 belief in the spell ; and professing mutual sacrifice 
 of their personal feelings (on her side genuine 
 enough), the pair parted. Napoleon took another 
 wife, a gentle creature, young, and without influence 
 
In Relation to Setf-culture. "JZ 
 
 over him ; and his star fell with his separation from 
 Josephine — in truth his good angel ; and no longer 
 restrained by her influence, headstrong wilfulness 
 brought about disaster after disaster till the whilom 
 ruler of the world became the exile of St. Helena ; 
 and the successor of Charlemagne was a prisoner 
 on a solitary rock in the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Jnsephine exercised that influence over Napoleon 
 which every married woman should aspire to possess 
 over her husband. She curbed his hasty resolu- 
 tions ; interposed betwixt his sovereign will and 
 acts which were injurious to him ; ruled wisely in 
 his absence ; swayed him ever for his good. And 
 how great was her influence over him is demon- 
 strated by his career subsequent to his separation 
 from this exemplary wife. With no one to restrain 
 him, to counsel him wisely, he went from one rash 
 venture to another, each followed by deepening 
 disaster, till he fell at the 'feet of his foes; while 
 the divorced Empress watched his downfall with 
 all lovingness and with useless regret. Her last 
 public act was to receive the allied sovereigns 
 assembled in Paris to recall the Bourbons. 
 
 However far the woman a man proposes, or 
 
74 The Will Power. 
 
 aspires to marry will be likely to influence him 
 for good, or evil, is not usually a factor in the 
 volitional dynamics of love and courtship. It is a 
 matter about which no rules, however broad, can 
 be laid down. It is, of course, perfectly obvious 
 that a wife should be a person of such principle 
 that her influence with her husband will be for 
 good rather than for evil. But, unless it be in 
 that exceptional case of the courtship of " the old 
 bachelor's wife," the suitor is more engaged in 
 seeing how he can win the lady, than in speculating 
 what her influence upon him will be after he is her 
 husband ; while, on the other hand, it is to be 
 feared women, especially young ones, are inclined 
 to test their influence rather in seeing how quickly 
 they can put their swain out, than in seeing how 
 they can make the most of him. How few men 
 in courtship have taken the line of Felix IIo , who 
 when gazing on Esther Lyon said, " I wonder 
 whether the subtle measuring of forces will ever 
 come to measuring the force there would be in one 
 beautiful woman whose mind was as noble as her 
 face was beautiful, who made a man's passion for 
 her rush in one current with all the great aims of 
 
In Relation to Self-ctdture. 75 
 
 his life ! " To • which keen-witted lovable Esther 
 made answer, " It is difficult for a woman ever 
 to try to be anything good when she is not believed 
 in, when it is always supposed that she must be 
 contemptible." But then I know men, and women 
 too, who speak disrespectfully of Felix, and call 
 him a prig. Whether these persons will look, or 
 ever did look, on courtship from Felix's point of 
 view may be questioned. Yet it would possibly be 
 well for the world at large, as well as those im- 
 mediately concerned, if this matter were oftener 
 inwardly digested. The outline of the profile, the 
 angles of the mouth, the lustre of the eye, nay 
 even the turn of the ankle, to say nothing of her 
 fortune, will weigh with most men more than the 
 subtlest of mental dynamics. Not that the matter 
 has entirely escaped the world's notice, as the 
 maxim testifieth, " Better get a woman with money 
 in her than with money with her." Such female 
 influence is often found most valuable to a character 
 not itself remarkable for strength. When Bobby 
 Banks forgot his mare and cart at Keswick, and 
 found that repeated pints of ale did not throw 
 '•the least light in the world" on his perplexity. 
 
76 The Will Power. 
 
 his mind, even through its vinous fumes, wondered, 
 "What'll Betty think? what will Betty think?" 
 so strong was the force of habit. But is the man 
 who is somewhat suspicious of his own strength 
 of mind likely to seek in a spouse those elements 
 of strength lacking in himself? On the other hand, 
 do strong-willed women ever marry by design men 
 whom they can " manage " ? It would be ungallant 
 to discuss the question, yet amidst the characters 
 of history and fiction such a union is not unknown. 
 Perhaps George Eliot had some such thought in 
 her heart when speaking of commonplace Amos 
 Barton and his sweet wife Milly, though couched 
 in guarded phrase. " I have all my life had a 
 sympathy for mongrel ungainly dogs who are no- 
 body's pets." And many a good woman seems to 
 have, "thrown herself away" for no equivalent 
 discernible by others. 
 
 Then there lies beyond all the question of the 
 relations of the will that of the possibility of some 
 reserve of will, i.e. that at times of great emergency, 
 a man can call out reserve will-power, as a general 
 calls out his reserves in battle. " It is related of 
 Muley Moluc, the Moorish leader, that, when lying 
 
In Relation to Self-culture. J J 
 
 ill, almost worn out by an incurable disease, a battle 
 took place between his troops and the Portuguese, 
 when starting from his litter at the great crisis of 
 the fight, he rallied his army, led them to victory, 
 and then instantly sank exhausted and expired." 
 His remaining strength was called out and expended 
 in one final effort. A story still more to the point was 
 recently told me by an eminent physician. One day 
 he was asked by a man whose exploits in his own 
 line are known all over the world, "Doctor, what is 
 will ? " The physician declined to commit himself 
 to any definition. The inquirer went on, "One 
 day I signed an agreement to wheel a barrow along 
 a rope on a given day. A day or two before I was 
 seized with lumbago. I called in my medical man, 
 . and told him I must be cured by a certain day ; not 
 only because I should lose what I hoped to earn, but 
 also forfeit a large sum. I got no better, and the 
 evening before the day of the exploit, he argued 
 against -my thinking of carrying out my agreement. 
 Next morning I was no better; the doctor forbade 
 my. getting up. I told him, 'What do I want with 
 your advice ? If you cannot cure me, of what good 
 is your advice?' When I got to the place there 
 
78 The Will Power. 
 
 was the doctor, protesting I was unfit for the exploit. 
 I went on, though I felt like a frog with my back. 
 I got ready my pole and my barrow, took hold of 
 the handles, and wheeled it along the rope as well as 
 ever I did. When I got to the end I wheeled it 
 back again, and when this was done, I was a frog 
 again. What made me that I could wheel the 
 barrow ? It was my reserve-will ! " This is the 
 story, bald and uninteresting compared to what it 
 was when told in the Frenchman's imperfect English, 
 exquisitely imitated ; but the moral remains, " It 
 was my reserve-will." 
 
 How many of us possess some reserve-will for 
 emergencies, which only reveals itself when the 
 emergency has been encountered successfully, and 
 then the individual explains, "I don't know how 
 ever I did it. But I didl" 
 
WILL AND CIRCUMSTANCE. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WILL AND CIRCUMSTANCE. 
 
 " "" I "O be right in great memorable moments is, 
 perhaps, the thing we need most wish for 
 ourselves," says George Eliot; and "great 
 moments " are the sudden test of long-forming 
 character. The decision then will tell what the 
 training has been. Emergency is the surest test 
 of character. It is not difScult to forecast what 
 some persons will do when the hour of trial comes, 
 " come it slow or come it fast." They will act with 
 promptitud,e and decision, action being the outcome 
 of formed character ; while others will hesitate, 
 waver, compromise, until action is no longer 
 possible, and sometimes act hastily when too late. 
 There are many people from whom prompt decision 
 in the hour of trial can no more be expected than 
 we can hope to see an eclipse the occurrence of 
 which has not been predicted. 
 
 6 
 
82 The Will Power. 
 
 In what lies the difference ? In the preparation 
 of the mind, the development of the character ; in 
 which "will," it has been said before, is the first 
 numeral. The self-cultivation it is which decides 
 when the supreme time comes, when amidst con- 
 tending interests, conflicting emotions, the decision 
 has to be made. 
 
 " It is one thing to be tempted, 
 It is another thing to fall," 
 
 no matter whether it is man's honesty, or woman's 
 honour which is involved. A man does not commit 
 a great act of dishonesty without previous toying 
 with crime. A virtuous chaste-minded girl does not 
 sacrifice her honour on a sudden ; the girl who 
 falls before a quick flash of opportunity has 
 previously allowed passion to mix too freely among 
 her thoughts. We may not be able to trace the 
 antecedents of the particular act ; but depend upon 
 it, it had a past in which the act was foreseen, and 
 had been speculatively considered. The man has 
 had hours of irresolution as to the abstract question 
 of right and wrong in certain concrete matters ; the 
 girl has failed to regi.rd her honour "as a con- 
 
Will and Circumstance. 83 
 
 servative principle never to be reasoned upon nor 
 subjected to calculations of utility." Of the man's 
 case, Horace Greeley said truly, "That is the 
 darkest day in a man's career whed he first 
 thinks there is an easier way of getting a dollar 
 than squarely earning it." Of woman's fall it is 
 equally certain that she has hesitated inwardly, 
 halted betwixt opportunity and resistance ; that her 
 determination has been sapped, indeed, before she 
 consented to allow herself to be placed in the 
 position of temptation. Our social laws and regu- 
 lations surround women with a fence of protection 
 against temptation ; and their very existence, the 
 scrupulous attention paid to them by decent women, 
 point unmistakably to the widespread conviction 
 that they are necessary; and that many young 
 women may not safely be left alone to protect their 
 own honour, but stand in need of safeguards fur- 
 nished for them by the thoughtfulness of others. 
 It is a pity that these are necessary ! 
 
 And yet what do we see around us ? We see 
 men, youths, and adults of good position preparing 
 for momentous decisions by gambling, especially 
 betting ; which is surely trying " an easier waj- of 
 
84 The- Will Power. 
 
 getting a dollar than squarely earning it " ? They 
 will evince their judgment by their selection of a 
 horse for a certain race ; having no real knowledge 
 of the animal, and knowing no more of horse-racing 
 than the "tips'' of sporting newspapers and their 
 own chatter thereupon. But they are anxious to 
 make money without working hard for it ; and 
 impressed with their own powers of discrimination, 
 or in blind trust in their luck (whatever that may 
 be), they stake some money they can ill afford to 
 lose. It goes, and they must retrieve their ill- 
 success: and having no money of their own, they 
 borrow some at ruinous interest, and lose that, and 
 walk out into the world a young man of position 
 ruined- on the turf; or, in other positions of life, 
 lend themselves some money from their employer, 
 lose it, and figure in the police court for embezzle- 
 ment, and furnish a moralising paragraph in the 
 newspapers. 
 
 These are sorry endings of high hopes, pitiful 
 results of building castles in the air. It is said 
 " that among the cab-drivers of London are many 
 younger sons of the aristocracy who occupy their 
 position because they did not lead trumps when 
 
Will and Circumstance. 85 
 
 they had five in hand." What were younger sons 
 doing with cards ? Whist is a fine recreation for a 
 man retired from business, who plays for a certain 
 stake to give interest to tlie game ; which is money he 
 has himself earned, and can easily afford to lose : 
 but as a speculative procedure it is too much a 
 game of skill for a patrician youth out at the elbows. 
 Gambling even in stocks is a proceeding which has 
 recently furnished a variety of instances of gentlemen 
 who have suddenly disappeared without leaving any 
 address behind them ; and who are believed to be 
 wandering outcasts in Mexico, since Spain no longer 
 affords them , a shelter. Take my word for it, 
 youthful reader, the young man of good family 
 engaged in driving a hansom cab ; the youth picking 
 oakum for tampering with his master's till ; the 
 gentleman who goes into exile where the extradition 
 treaties are not yet in force, never contemplated 
 these base issues : but all hoped to make something 
 by their ventures, — for " gambling is the child of 
 avarice and the parent of despa'r." The last final 
 deed which led to actual ruin was but the terminal 
 scene in a prolonged drama : maybe, indeed, in some 
 cases, the last straw that breaks the camel's back ; 
 
86 The Will Power. 
 
 or, in others, like the sharper who, having operated 
 successfully for hundreds, gets caught at last for a 
 paltry seven-and-sixpence. 
 
 So with girls who fall before temptation ; they 
 have never prayed very earnestly against it. Hetty 
 Sorrel, in "Adam Bede,'' had her own little schemes 
 in her conduct ; and other squirrel-brained young 
 females in their inward thoughts are apt to see 
 brilliant issues from distinctly doubtful conduct. A 
 course of novel-reading, where vice and crime go 
 hand in hand, treading "the primrose path to perdi- 
 tion,'' where " the world, the flesh, and the devil " 
 seem the chief aims of life, is not the best training 
 for a young woman ; and often it is well for her if 
 her mother is a lynx-eyed personage, with more 
 fixed views about the danger of temptation than her 
 inexperienced daughter, when that hour draws nigh. 
 
 It is, perhaps, the most fortunate thing for 
 her that she probably possesses few attractions. 
 Lectures on prudence are common with mothers ; 
 possibly lessons on purity would be even still more 
 valuable : the difficulty, however, lies probablj' in the 
 mother's incapacity to do the topic justice. Heroic 
 sinners are the personages in which some writers of 
 
Will and Circumstance. 87 
 
 fiction delight : while others, again — both mostly 
 ladies— pdraw young men who are nothing more than 
 schoolmistresses in masculine attire. The latter 
 may be prigs, and their conceit offensive to our own 
 vanity ; but well-mannered ruffians like Strathmore 
 are infinitely more mischievous, as are the Laras 
 and Corsairs of a by-past time, " the veriest puppets 
 that were ever pulled by the strings of lust and 
 pride," said one of those very " schoolmistresses in 
 trousers." That so much moral garbage is devoured 
 by the subscribers to circulating libraries is a signi- 
 ficant fact, coupled with another fact : that among 
 the subscribers to the said circulating libraries young 
 women are conspicuously numerous. With little 
 or nothing to do ; nothing to live for but the 
 eligible young man, the potential husband, who 
 somehow or other does not turn up ; surrounded by 
 tiresome people, albeit near relatives ; with only 
 girls of their own kidney to correspond, or inter- 
 change thoughts with ; these products of a modern 
 boarding-school training would be weary of life 
 without the novel : all the more acceptable to them 
 if addressed specially to their own feelings and 
 capacities. To scamper through a novel to see 
 
88 The Will Power. 
 
 " how it ends " ; to dwell on certain scenes and 
 linger over certain passages, both of which might 
 have been deleted by the proof reader with advan- 
 tage to public morals — is their preparation for " that 
 position to which it shall please God to call them '' ; 
 and what a large section of feminine social units 
 appear to regard as best and fittest. Abbe Fendlon, 
 in his essay " On the Education of Daughters," put 
 it thus in speaking of girls whose education has been 
 neglected : " The mind not having acquired a bent 
 toward any particular object, plies itself toward what 
 is evil; it makes to itself a sort of second original 
 sin, which is the source of a thousand disorders in 
 maturer age." And as they sow, so they reap. When 
 they do get married the monotony of their lives is 
 varied by suspecting their husbands of amours ; or 
 perhaps having some little affairs of that kind of 
 their own. Destitute of intellectual resources, and 
 incapable of intellectual pleasures, they drift on — 
 whither ? " And thus I was cut off from my 
 beloved's arms for ever, except through the billows 
 of sin or the floods of death." The grave or a 
 dishonoured existence, the charnel house or the 
 divorce court, are the alternatives of a being 
 
Will and Circumstance. 89 
 
 " created in the image of God," and credited with a 
 soul to be saved. And yet it would seem from the 
 favour it finds that such and such-like is demanded 
 by the Anglo-Saxon women ; the purest and the 
 chastest of their sex in the world. The blackest 
 testimony against these prurient misses is to be 
 found in the literary provender furnished to them by 
 some of the novelists of their own sex. The bad 
 women of men's novels are never so thoroughly 
 wicked and atrocious as the bad heroines of female 
 writers. It is one thing to be Satanic, another 
 thing to be impish. And yet women know their 
 own sex better, or at least it is so asserted, than 
 men do. " Nobody but a woman can understand 
 woman," a lady of unquestionable ability told me 
 once. All that can be said on this subject is 
 (granting the statement to be well founded), female 
 novelists seem to see the dark side of womankind 
 more vividly, or else a darker aspect, than men do. 
 Women study character systematically (in their own 
 way), both men and their own sex ; and the way one 
 woman can track another woman's devious windings 
 through "ways that are dark and tricks that are 
 vain," when she gives her mind to it, is simply 
 
90 The Will Power. 
 
 appalling to the masculine intellect. No turn or 
 double is there but is unravelled until, nude, stripped 
 naked, as regards motive and action, the victim 
 stands revealed before one. The promptitude with 
 which a woman of character will pronounce authori- 
 tatively and decide upon another woman's conduct 
 when doubtful, throws some light upon woman's 
 opinion of women ; in which charity is often con- 
 spicuous by its absence. If women are really at 
 heart what some modern novelists choose to depict 
 them, the outlook for the future is a dark one. If 
 they belie their sex, why do the said sex patronise 
 them by reading their productions ? But after all 
 that is a matter for the sex themselves ! 
 
 With men or women, it is not the final act, then, 
 which constitutes the fall ; the great step has been 
 taken when they allow themselves to entertain the 
 idea of doing that which they are ashamed of other 
 people knowing 1 When in doubt as to what 
 they are about to do, they have only to ask them- 
 selves this question : " Do I care about the world 
 knowing ? " If an affirmative answer can be given, 
 then they need be in no doubt about the impropriety 
 of what they are proposing, even speculatively, to 
 
Will and Circumstance. 91 
 
 do. When engaged in self-communion, tiie plainer 
 and simpler the language used the better. "You 
 cannot touch pitch without being defiled." And the 
 mind which toys with sin will find itself besmirched, 
 — as well as with resolve sapped. 
 
 " The line of least resistance." What is that ? 
 asks the youthful reader. It is often the line of 
 conduct, my young friend ! All action takes the 
 line of least resistance ; even to the action of 
 dynamite upon rock, where the cleavage will take 
 the line of least resistance. This does not neces- 
 sarily involve degraded action by any means. The 
 line of least resistance may go upwards among 
 higher motives, as well as downwards amidst lower 
 motives. There is what one can not be, as well as 
 what one wishes to be. It is easier for some to die 
 than sacrifice their honour ; it is easier for some to 
 starve th'an steal. When the line of least resistance 
 goes upward, we call the conduct heroic ; when it 
 tends downward, we call it cowardly or craven. In 
 real life, as well as in fiction, women have been 
 pressed by enormous weight of circumstance to yield 
 their honour; and if the pressure be sufficiently 
 great, we are not surprised to see them yield. It 
 
92 The Will Power. 
 
 is a common part of the plot of a novel to place a 
 woman where she must yield her honour, either with 
 or without previous marriage rites, to save a re- 
 lative's reputation or life ; and terrible straits women 
 are often put to, no doubt. The struggle against 
 surrender tells how the yielding is detested. What 
 a woman will do under such circumstances will 
 depend upon " the line of least resistance '' with her. 
 With General Gordon, it was easier to face all the 
 dangers of the desert and the Arabs than leave the 
 Soudan to bloodshed and anarchy. When death 
 has to be risked, we always honour him or her who 
 chooses to face it sooner than be false to them- 
 selves. 
 
 " This above all — to thine own self be true ; 
 And then it must follow, as the night the day. 
 Thou canst not then be false to any one. 
 Farewell ; my blessing season this in thee" I " 
 
 Yes, and we are true to ourselves — our real 
 selves — in our actions; the "selves" we make 
 ourselves ! The action is but " the conscious moving 
 over the silent depths of the unconscious." When 
 the time for decision, of which action is the outcome, 
 arrives, we will act according to what we are, — what 
 
Will and Circumstance. 93 
 
 we are hy descent plus what we have made our- 
 selves ; and as the acts of our ancestors affect us, 
 so our acts will affect our descendants. " I will 
 visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto 
 the third and fourth generation of those that hate 
 Me," it is written. If the individual is descended 
 from those who hate God, the sin of the ancestor 
 will be visited on him, or her in godless action. So 
 the sin of the individual will be handed down to 
 future generations. " I can do as I like," says the 
 person free to choose. Quite so ; but how about 
 the liking ? The person who has always striven 
 to act nobly will " like '' very differently from one 
 who has habitually shrunk from noble action. Our 
 inherited qualities go a great way ; but our individual 
 education goes still further, when the hour of choice 
 between good and evil actually arrives. Some 
 people cannot flinch from their ideal, and act 
 accordingly. Others, constantly engaged in finding 
 excuses for, and still more to themselves, will yield. 
 The martyr's crown of thorns has ever been 
 honoured. Such momentous decisions as involve 
 the martyr's crown come to few of us, fortunately ; 
 for it is to be feared few of us would bear such 
 
94 The Will Power. 
 
 test ; that, indeed, when weighed in the balance we 
 would be found wanting. But to every one comes 
 some hour of decision in life, and well for us is it 
 if we can "be right in great memorable moments." 
 We cannot, however, hope to be noble in emer- 
 gencies if we are mean and base by habit. In the 
 ordinary matters of life it is comparatively easy not 
 to act ignobly ; there is no great pressure upon us ; 
 but remember " in the absence of temptation virtue 
 has no merit." It is easy to do right when there is 
 no great temptation, or pressure to do otherwise. 
 
 The habitual consideration of the abstract right 
 and wrong in every concrete action, no matter how 
 unimportant, the choice betwixt good and evil in 
 the trivial things of life, is the building up of 
 character ; the preparation for the hour of trial, the 
 determining whither the direction of the line of least 
 resistance will tend — up or down. So much for 
 principle in the conflict betwixt will and circum- 
 stance. A man may fall and repent, as David did, 
 with a real repentance ; not the mere regret at 
 falling because the later consequences are disagree- 
 able, but the struggle to climb up again. Or man 
 or woman may fall and then turn their mind to 
 
Will and Circumstance. 95 
 
 see how far unpleasant consequences may be evaded. 
 The latter is not repentance ! Or a person may 
 repent an evil deed, or a life of evil when this 
 life is drawing to a close; but this is too often 
 merely " prudence extending its calculations beyond 
 the grave," carrying self-deception into another 
 world. Such conduct savours strongly of 
 
 " The devil fell ill, the devil a saint would be ; 
 The devil got well, the devil a saint was he." 
 
 A repentance based on such prudence is not likely 
 to be accepted at the last assize, or to blot out 
 anything registered " in the recording angel's black 
 bureau." At the dread time "when all hearts are 
 opened" its unreality will soon be apparent. The 
 effect of decision for good or evil will tell upon the 
 character of the decider's descendants ; a matter too 
 little recognised. Hawthorne speaks of " the little- 
 regarded truth that the act of the passing generation 
 is the germ which may and must produce a good 
 or evil fruit in a far-distant time." If evil deeds are 
 visited upon a distant generation, depend upon it 
 good deeds are not lost ! Good and evil bring their 
 reward with them in this world. "Behold, the 
 righteous shall be recompensed in the earth ; much 
 
96 The Will Power. 
 
 more the wicked and the sinner." The first is an 
 encouragement to do right ; the latter a menace for 
 those who plan to do e.vil, of which they would do 
 well to take a note. Our good actions -and our 
 bad actions live with us — ay, after us ; and if other 
 people do not know of them, we do ourselves. And 
 if we wish to live on comfortable terms with our- 
 selves, we must be able to look ourselves in the 
 mirror and not see there the reflection of a rOgue ! 
 
 Another matter there is of great importance in 
 the contest betwixt will and circumstance, and that 
 is knowledge. Knowledge is power, and is worth 
 obtaining for its own sake. When circumstance, 
 offers we must be ready to deal with it ; capable, 
 as well as willing. If a man is determined to deal 
 with circumstance, his volitional dynamics will find 
 their greatest aid in a sufficiency of knowledge. 
 Consequently, if far-seeing, he will seek knowledge 
 with unfaltering step. " As a rule, the most success- 
 ful man in life is the man who has the best 
 information," said Benjamin Disraeli. He did not 
 mean here by " successful " the richest men ; the 
 power to accumulate wealth being by no means 
 necessarily linked with the loftiest intelligence. He 
 
Will and Circumstance. 97 
 
 meant "success" in its broadest sense, not in its 
 most restricted sense ; for Disraeli was never- a rich 
 man, and possessed but very moderate means. 
 " Opportunity has a lock in front, but is bald 
 behind." If she cannot be caught as she comes, 
 it is no use to clutch at her when past, or even 
 passing. The requisite knowledge or information 
 is involved as well as the proper strength of will 
 to seize the opportunity as it flies past. And the 
 will must bring this knowledge with it for success ; 
 and consequently must take care to possess it, if 
 possible. 
 
 Yet how constantly is this fact forgotten or 
 ignored I It frequently falls to the writer's lot to 
 be consulted by young men as to what they should 
 do, and where they should settle in life. "What 
 are you working at ? " is the usual query. The 
 answer at once tells whether the man is doing 
 anything to help himself, or not. One man will 
 answer, "I have been working at so-and-so since 
 I passed," or " I have been studying abroad." It 
 is apparent these men have been acquiring know- 
 ledge for its own sake, and their own improve- 
 ment ; because they feel it will help them in their 
 
 7 
 
98 The Will Power. 
 
 onward career. Another will say, " I have been 
 doing nothing, having a holiday after passing." It 
 is equally clear that this man has had no ambition 
 to add to his intellectual capital. One such man 
 once came to ask what he should do after he passed 
 a certain examination ; and got such counsel as it 
 was in the writer's power to offer him. About 
 a year afterwards he called to ask again what he 
 could do, stating he had passed ; but it was the 
 easiest examination to be found which he had 
 adventured. Asking if he had added anything to 
 his stores of information since passing (an interval 
 of some six months), he replied he " had not opened 
 a book." On my comment that he was " a lazy 
 fellow," he burst out into tears ; considerably to my 
 surprise. Yet what else was he ? He put himself 
 to the easiest examination he could find, and ceased 
 his efforts the instant the immediate end was served. 
 He was "a lazy fellow!" I thought so then; and 
 I think so now. Yet he seemed to think his efforts 
 such as should have excited my admiration. It is 
 easy to discern the man who means to get on and 
 the man who throws his weight into the collar, as 
 compared to the man who pulls slack ; as easy as 
 
Will and Circumstance. 99 
 
 to note the temperament of a horse. Nor is it 
 difficult to forecast the future in each case. Yet the 
 airs that some fellows will put on on the strength of 
 some puny efforts they are making to pass some 
 ordinary standard; and the amount of self-denial 
 they will credit themselves with thereupon are often 
 amusing. They possibly think they are very 
 meritorious. I daresay when a young bird makes 
 its first hop from bough to bough its own estimate 
 of its performance will equal that of a mature bird 
 which has made a long flight. After all, if this 
 self-satisfaction stimulates to further efforts, it is 
 not harmful. If it leads to a feeling of rest on the 
 laurels won (such as they are), then it is pernicious 
 and harmful. When a man makes efforts to attain 
 something for himself, it is not fair to expect much 
 admiration from others — for is not he the persor 
 benefited ? If it was a self-denying effort to help somt. 
 one else, then the case would be widely different. 
 
 In the conflict of " will and circumstance " the will 
 should carry with it, too, integrity of purpose (" for 
 what availeth it a man to gain the whole world 
 and lose his own soul ? "), as well as a sufficiency 
 of knowledge for success, The will without these 
 
lOO The Will Power. 
 
 would only be like a man wishing to make a cart 
 without tools, or previous knowledge of carpentry. 
 
 Yet another matter remains to be considered, and 
 that is the bodily strength which goes with the 
 resolute will. It is of little use putting a youth 
 to a career where the sole result that can be 
 reasonably anticipated is a breakdown of the health 
 before success could possibly be attained. The 
 young man who has a decided consumptive taint 
 in his blood will do well to avoid crowded cities, 
 ill- ventilated rooms, and an indoor occupation ; under 
 which circumstances his health is much more likely 
 to fail than if he sought an opposite life of exercise 
 in the fresh air. Even when, under the first circum- 
 stances, signs of mischief show themselves, a return 
 to the country is often attended with excellent 
 results ; especially if he make up his mind to 
 remain there. The Jew is essentially a dweller 
 in towns, at least in England, and of him what is 
 written may not hold good, for he is not an 
 agriculturist, and the pedlar is extinct ; but of other 
 persons it is certainly true. Especially is the 
 consideration of the physique of importance in Great 
 Britain where, as a rule, a man adheres to his 
 
Will and Ciicumstance. loi 
 
 original occupation, and to take to something else is 
 the exception. In the United States of America it 
 is different ; there it is quite usual for a man tc try 
 one occupation after another until he finds one (■'• 
 his liking, or in which he is successful. Huxle;) 
 thinks that everything is possible for a man with 
 a good digestion ; and there is undoubtedly a great 
 deal in this, even in the face of the fact that Jews 
 are a dyspeptic people. The person with a defective 
 digestion can do less work, and must spend more 
 on (appropriate) food than others ; and so is heavily 
 handicapped in the race of life. Yet there are some 
 brilliant dyspeptics of the Tom Carlyle type, — one 
 can feel a stomach-ache in many of his sentences ! 
 Another matter which impairs the power to contend 
 with circumstance is want of sleep. Men like 
 Napoleon Bonaparte and Wellington, who were 
 small sleepers, had so many more hours every day 
 for toil ; and consequently got through an enormous 
 amount of work. But when a person of ordinary 
 powers essays to follow their example, the result 
 is a " breakdown " sooner or later ; and usually 
 sooner. Bad sleepers are an irritable race, quite 
 as much as dyspeptics. 
 
I02 The Will Power. 
 
 Yet there are instances of persons who have 
 succeeded in doing a great deal in this world despite 
 a weak physique. The hunchbacked are usually 
 intelligent workmen : what they lack in physical 
 power, they make up for by using their brains. 
 The following sketch by Macaulay is of interest 
 here. He is speaking of the battle of Landen, 
 one of the many severe battles fought betwixt 
 France and the Allies in the later years of the 
 seventeenth century. " Never, perhaps, was the 
 change which the progress of civilisation has pro- 
 duced in the art of war more strikingly illustrated 
 than on that day. Ajax beating down the Trojan 
 leader with a rock which two ordinary men could 
 scarcely lift, Horatius defending the bridge against 
 an army, Richard the Lion-hearted spurring along 
 the Saracen line without finding an enemy to stand 
 his assault, Robert Bruce crushing with one blow 
 the helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun in sight 
 of the whole army of England and Scotland, such 
 are the heroes of a dark age. In such an age 
 bodily vigour is the indispensable qualification of a 
 warrior. At Landen two sickly beings, who in a 
 rude state of society would have been regarded as 
 
Will and Circumstance, 103 
 
 too puny to bear any part in combats, were the souls 
 of two great armies. In some heathen countries 
 they would have been exposed while infants. In 
 Christendom they would, six hundred years earlier, 
 have been sent to some quiet cloister. But their 
 lot had fallen on a time when men had discovered 
 that the strength of the muscles is far inferior in 
 value to the strength of the mind. It is probable 
 that, among the hundred and twenty thousand 
 soldiers who were marshalled round Neerwinden 
 under all the standards of Western Europe, the two 
 feeblest in body were the hunchbacked dwarf who 
 urged forward the fiery onset of France, and the 
 asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat 01 
 England." And " the asthmatic skeleton " was 
 always seen at his best after a stricken field. Not 
 only was he a descendant of the tenacious William 
 the Silent, but there ran in his veins the blood of 
 Admiral Coligni, who said, "In one respect I may 
 claim superiority over Alexander, over Scipio, over 
 Csesar. They won great battles, that is true. I have 
 lost four great battles ; and yet I show to the enemy 
 a more formidable front than ever." No wonder 
 William of Orange was chosen king of England ; the 
 
I04 The Will Power. 
 
 country of the men of whom Napoleon said they 
 never knew when they were beaten. "They are 
 beaten, and they won't run." And when a man will 
 not realise that he is beaten he certainly is not con- 
 quered. Tenacity of purpose is an Anglo-Saxon 
 quality. The old Norseman who said, " I believe 
 neither in idols or demons. I put my sole trust in 
 my own strength of body and soul," spoke for his race. 
 The whole history of England's colonies and con- 
 quests points the same moral. When Wellington put 
 his foot down upon a scrap of Portuguese territory, 
 Massena was ordered "to drive the English into 
 the sea " ; but in vain he tried to induce his wary 
 foe to lift it. There he was, and there he intended 
 to remain. Massena came, looked at the lines of 
 Torres Vddras, waited, looked again and again, and 
 then "the spoilt child of victory" retired; and 
 turned his back on the lines without attempting to 
 assault them. The English were not to be driven 
 into the sea, and the French retreated ; and soon 
 the whole peninsula knew that the English still 
 kept their hold. Wellington saw Napoleon's mighty 
 empire was ready to fall to pieces ; and a decisive 
 check at one point would be the beginning of the 
 
Will and Circumstance. 105 
 
 end — the shock would be felt throughout the totter- 
 ing mass. What says the French historian Thiers of 
 this exploit and Wellington's view of the state of 
 affairs ? " This opinion, which does the highest 
 honour to the military and political judgment of Lord 
 Wellington, had become with him a fixed idea ; and 
 he persevered in it with a firmness of mind and an 
 obstinacy of character worthy of admiration." 
 Wellington saw what had to be done, and he did it ; 
 and nothing could shake his hold on Torres Vddras. 
 His clearness of judgment in military matters was 
 wonderful. It was shown once by his observation 
 that two villages stood directly opposite each other on 
 either side of a river, and consequently some means 
 of communication must exist between them. His 
 guides declared there was no ford, but his determined 
 will led him to look for himself; he found a ford, 
 crossed, and won the decisive battle of Assye. 
 Wellington was a typical Englishman in his tenacity 
 of purpose. 
 
 But fixity of purpose is found wherever the 
 blood of the Norsemen runs, of whom Kingsley said, 
 " Every nation of Europe, from Gibraltar to St. 
 Petersburg, owes to them the most precious 
 
io6 The Will Power. 
 
 elements of strength " ; of strength of will even more 
 than of body. 
 
 Columbus was an Italian who possessed all that 
 determination which came of Norse blood combined 
 with the subtlety of the Italian character. He 
 thought much of what the ancients said of a short 
 course from Spain to India, of Plato's Atlantic 
 Island ; and conceived the idea of sailing to India 
 over the Atlantic. He applied to the Genoese, who 
 rejected his scheme as impracticable ; then to 
 Portugal, at that time taking the lead in maritime 
 discovery, only to be deceived by King John ; and 
 then he sent his brother to England, while he 
 repaired to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 Here he bore suspense and disappointment for long, 
 but the fall of Granada led to his ultimate success ; 
 and at last he set out into the unknown sea with 
 a small fleet, which was so ill-formed as scarcely 
 to reach the Canaries in safety ; soon after leaving 
 them, the spirits of his crew fell, and then Columbus 
 " perceived that the art of governing the minds of 
 men would be no less requisite for accomplishing the 
 discoveries he had in view than naval skill and 
 undaunted courage." And he could trust himself 
 
Will and Circumstance. 107 
 
 only. "As soon as they put to sea, he regulated 
 everything by his sole authority ; he superintended 
 the execution of every order ; and allowing himself 
 only a few hours' sleep, he was at all other times on 
 deck." As he went further westward the hearts of 
 his crew failed them, and mutiny was imminent. But 
 Columbus retained his serenity of mind even under 
 these trying circumstances ; and induced his crew to 
 persevere for three days more. Three critical days in 
 the history of the world ! Shortly there drifted past 
 them a newly cut cane, then a piece of carved 
 timber, and a branch of a tree covered with fresh 
 red berries. Land could not be far distant. The 
 ships were ordered to lie-to for the night, and about 
 two hours after midnight Columbus saw a light and 
 pointed it out to a companion. His own eye first 
 saw the conclusive evidence of the existence of man 
 in the New World. And when day dawned on 
 Friday, October 12th, 1493, there was land; and all 
 the hopes of Columbus were realised. It was a near 
 affair : but resolution overcame all difficulties ; and a 
 new world commenced its history. Had Columbus 
 not possessed that influence over others in the " will 
 fight" which will be discussed in the next chapter, 
 
io8 The Will Power. 
 
 the discovery of America might have been delayed 
 for centuries. 
 
 On December 13th, 1577, Francis Drake sailed 
 from Plymouth Sound in the Pelican, with three 
 consorts smaller even than herself. He and his 
 crew knew their fate if they failed. Drowning, or 
 the tortures of the Inquisition would be their lot. 
 But the hardy " sea-dogs " were stout-hearted fellows 
 who feared not Spaniard or devil. After reaching 
 the South American coast, his second in command, 
 Mr. Doughty, tried to slip away. His ship was fired 
 and left behind, and the crew transferred to the 
 Pelican. On the coast of Patagonia stood a gibbet 
 bearing the skeletons of mutineers left by Magellan, 
 and here, having been found plotting mutiny, the 
 corse of Mr. Doughty was left by Drake. With 
 infinite toil Drake made his way through the Straits 
 into the Pacific, to be swept far away towards the 
 Antarctic seas by a storm and separated from his 
 consorts ; one of whom turned back to England. 
 Undaunted the sea-dog sailed into the harbour of 
 Valparaiso and rifled a Spanish galleon. Then 
 along the coast he sailed, filling the hold of the 
 Pelican with silver and gold. Having refitted on 
 
Will and Circtimstance. ■ 109 
 
 the coast of California, he turned his course across 
 the unknown Pacific. One night when creeping 
 along the eastern seas her keel was heard to grate 
 on a coral reef, and there lay the Pelican till morn- 
 ing. However, she was lightened and got off safely. 
 All had behaved well except the chaplain, whose 
 heart failed him, though usually of a courageous 
 disposition ; and he expressed doubts whether 
 Doughty's fate was a just one, or not. Having 
 found a strait and got into the Indian Ocean, Drake 
 had the chaplain formally chained to a ringbolt 
 on deck till he repented him of his cowardice ; which, 
 we are glad to hear, it did not take him long to do. 
 Round the Cape of Good Hope, up the Atlantic, 
 sailed the little vessel, into Plymouth harbour once 
 more, " having marked with her keel a furrow round 
 the globe '' ; the first that did. Sir Francis Drake 
 found, like other pioneers, that it was necessary to 
 be able to command men as' well as to be an accom- 
 plished sailor and a fearless man. "When at sea 
 he wore a scarlet cap with a gold band, and was 
 exacting in the respect with which he required to be 
 treated by his crew." Like Columbus, he found he 
 must be a master of men ; and each of these daring 
 
no The Will Power. 
 
 navigators was respected, and obeyed accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 Not less adventurous than these two eminent men 
 was La Salle, the discoverer of the Mississippi. The 
 Jesuits had with marvellous heroism explored the 
 lakes of the St. Lawrence ; and among them the son 
 of the burgher of Rouen caught the spirit of enter- 
 prise. He was " a young man in whom the fire of 
 youth glowed not the less ardently for the veil of 
 reserve that covered it ; who shrank from no danger, 
 but would not court it in bravado ; and who would 
 cling with an invincible tenacity of grip to any pur- 
 pose he might espouse." Up far away on the 
 Canadian lakes one winter he had some Iroquois 
 guests who told him of a river, the Ohio, in their 
 country flowing into the sea at the distance of an 
 eight or nine months' journey. From this he be- 
 lieved the river to flow westward into the " Vermilion 
 Sea " (the Gulf of California). Difficulty after diffi- 
 culty met him amidst the wild forests and morasses 
 of Illinois, and the bloody wars of the Indians. But 
 he pushed up the waters, debouching into Lake 
 Michigan till he struck the watershed of the Missis- 
 sippi. Here, however, he was stopped, and had to 
 
Will and Circumstance. in 
 
 return baffled. The Jesuits took alarm at his enter- 
 prise, and tried to poison him, but he recovered. 
 Back to Montreal he went, in order to make prepara- 
 tions for following the Ohio to the sea. Even to the 
 court of France he found it necessary to go ; and he 
 got what money he could from his relatives at 
 Rouen. A ship had to be built above Niagara Falls 
 in order to carry a proper store of munitions for his 
 enterprise to his point of departure up the Chekagou 
 (Chicago) river. In an Italian, an ex-soldier who 
 had lost one hand in the Sicilian wars, he found a 
 worthy collaborateur. They pushed over into the 
 Mississippi basin and past Buffalo Rock, a favourite 
 Indian encampment. They were suspected of being 
 spies of the dreaded Iroquois, and again poison was 
 administered in vain to the intrepid explorer. 
 Mutiny was frequent among his French followers in 
 consequence of the difficulties and dangers of his 
 enterprises, despite La Salle's force of character; 
 but his sway over the Indian was almost magical. 
 Here he got entangled amidst the hostile armies of 
 the Indians ; and it was at this critical time La Salle 
 first gazed on the broad stream of the Mississippi 
 proper. But he had once more to pause, and 
 
1 1 2 The Will Power. 
 
 spent the winter in preparing for his great coup^ 
 " He might have brooded on the redoubled ruin that 
 had befallen him : the desponding friends, the exult- 
 ing foes ; the wasted energies, the crushing load of 
 debt, the stormy past, the dark and lowering future. 
 But his mind was of a different temper. He had 
 no thought but to grapple with adversity, and out of 
 the fragments of his ruin to rear the fabric of a 
 triumphant success." He and his Italian, Tonty, had 
 been separated, and as soon as they were reunited 
 back to the enterprise they returned without delay. 
 Down the river they went, leaving winter behind, 
 them, and finding before them the realms of spring. 
 At last they came upon the Indians of Arkansas, " a 
 lively, civil, generous people, very different from the 
 cold, cruel, taciturn Indians of the north." Then 
 they founded, in the name of the King of France, the 
 colony of Louisiana. His next design was to build 
 a ship and sail out into the Gulf of Mexico ; but 
 this plan he found he was not able to carry out. So 
 once more he left the Indian wigwams and made his 
 way to Paris. Here he exerted his wonderful com- 
 mand over his fellow-men so successfully that he sei 
 out for the mouth of the Mississippi with a fleet. 
 
Will and Circumstance. 1 1 3 
 
 Hampered by the French commander, he sailed 
 past the main mouth of the Mississippi to reach a 
 western mouth of its delta. The vessels were 
 wrecked, not without strong suspicion of malice ; and 
 malarial fever thinned the ranks of his followers : but 
 La Salle was as undaunted as ever, though growing 
 sterner and harsher from his long series of diffi- 
 culties. Cut off from France by the sea, he formed 
 the desperate resolution of making his way up the 
 river to Canada. Illness attacked him, " the life of 
 the party," but he cast it off apparently by an effort 
 of will. Despairing of success, a mutiny was set on 
 foot to murder La Salle and his devoted Indian 
 followers. These last fell first ; then a bullet through 
 his brain put an end to the career of a man who 
 " belonged not to the age of the knight-errant and 
 the saint, but to the modern world of practical study 
 and practical action." His biographer concludes, 
 " To estimate aright the marvels of his patient forti- 
 tude, one must follow on his track through the vast 
 scene of his interminable journeyings, those thousands 
 of miles of forest, marsh, and river, where again and 
 again, in the bitterness of baffled striving, the un- 
 tiring pilgrim pushed onwards to the goal he was 
 
 8 
 
1 14 The Will Power. 
 
 never to attain. America owes him an enduring 
 memory, for in this masculine figure, cast in iron, 
 she sees the heroic pioneer who guided her to the 
 possession of her richest heritage." 
 
 Next to La Salle as a river explorer comes our 
 own discoverer David Livingstone, the factory- 
 worker, who was the first white man to gaze on 
 the head waters of the Nile. Peaceful himself, he 
 came of a fighting race, and showed cool courage 
 under the most trying circumstances. Feeling a 
 strong desire to be a missionary, he studied medicine 
 in order to increase his usefulness. Early in his 
 career in South Africa, he was seized by a lion 
 which he had wounded. " Growling horribly close 
 to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. 
 The shock produced a stupor similar to that which 
 seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of 
 the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which 
 there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, 
 though quite conscious of all that was happening," 
 is his account of this extraordinary experience. 
 The wound left him with a false joint near the 
 shoulder, but this never lessened his activity as an 
 explorer. As to his relations to the negroes he so 
 
Will and Circumstance. 115 
 
 ardently wished to convert, he writes, "In our 
 relations with this people we were simply strangers, 
 exercising no authority or control whatever. Our 
 influence depended entirely on persuasion ; and 
 having taught them by kind conversation as well as 
 by public instruction, I expected them to do what 
 their own sense of right and wrong dictated." Such 
 was the mild rule of the missionary as he wandered 
 along to the marvellous falls of the Zambesi, or 
 sailed on the huge inland lakes of Central Africa. 
 He revisited home several times, only to return 
 more devotedly to his dark-skinned friends, with 
 whom he loved to be alone. At last, far away from 
 any white man, he sickened and died. Having built 
 him a hut to shelter him while dying, 
 
 " The swarthy followers stood aloof, 
 Unled, unfathered." 
 
 They were powerless to aid him : but they brought 
 his body down to the coast with the fidelity of the 
 savage, to deliver it safely to the white men ; by 
 whom it was taken, to be laid among the illustrious 
 dead in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 In all these different men, we see not only 
 
ii6 The Will Power. 
 
 indomitable purpose ; but a power of command over 
 others, which was curiously marked in the relations 
 of La Salle and Livingstone with the uncivilised 
 races amidst whom each spent such long, long 
 years. 
 
 Much the same power was possessed by John 
 Davis over the Esquimaux. Davis was one of the 
 band who were often found together at Greenaway 
 Manor House. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, and others scarcely less renowned, formed 
 a very remarkable group. Davis is described as a 
 steady and determined seaman. " Brave as he was, 
 he is distinguished by a peculiar and exquisite 
 sweetness of nature, which, from many little facts of 
 his life, seems to have affected every one with whom 
 he came in contact in a remarkable degree. We 
 find men, for the love of Master Davis, leaving their 
 firesides to sail with him without other hope or 
 motive ; we find silver bullets cast to shoot him in 
 a mutiny, the hard rude nature of the mutineers 
 being awed by something in his carriage, which was 
 not like that of other men." Three different 
 attempts he made to discover the North-west Passage, 
 but in vain. He was beaten ; but beaten after what 
 
Will and Circumstance. ■ 117 
 
 efforts ! All that man could do he did ; and con- 
 sidering the vessels at his command, he achieved 
 wonders. When his crew wished to punish the 
 Esquimaux for stealing, especially iron articles, he 
 pleaded for them, " supposing it to be so very hard 
 in so short a time to make them know their evils.'' 
 So with his own men when beginning to be afraid. 
 "The people began to fall sick and faint-hearted, 
 whereupon, very orderly and with good discretion, 
 they entreated me to regard the safety of my own 
 life, as well as the preservation of theirs, and that 
 I should not, through overboldness, leave their 
 widows and fatherless children to give me bitter 
 curses." And what did brave John Davis do ? He 
 gave his own ship for those who were faint-hearted 
 to return in to England ; while he, with such 
 volunteers as stuck to him, took the smaller ship, 
 and went on into the unknown seas. He found the 
 entrance to Hudson's Bay, and left his name in 
 Davis's Straits. The coming of the Armada put a 
 stop to Arctic enterprise, and the London merchants 
 said, " This Davis hath been three times employed ; 
 why hath he not found the passage ? " Alas for 
 John Davis! he could not. accomplish everything 
 
ii8 The Will Power. 
 
 even with his determined will ; and the North-west 
 Passage remained undiscovered, to engage many a 
 bold navigator after his day. 
 
 Brave as were Elizabeth's seadogs, Sir Richard 
 Grenville "was conspicuous in that remarkable 
 time for his constancy and daring.'' His ship the 
 Revenge was one of twelve English ships which had 
 been cruising in the Spanish main, and were lying 
 at anchor off the island of Flores, when a Spanish 
 fleet of fifty-three vessels hove in sight. Eleven 
 got away ; but Sir Richard had nearly half his men 
 on shore sick. He would not leave them, and 
 before he could get them on board the Spaniards 
 were upon him. 
 
 He only had one hundred men fit to fight ; but his 
 spirit prevailed in every one of them. Instead of 
 trying to escape, they stood the brunt of the Spanish 
 fleet ; and fifteen Spanish galleons in turn attacked the 
 Revenge, thirteen to fall back foiled and shattered, 
 while two were sunk. Of her hundred men forty 
 were dead, and many more wounded. Sir Richard 
 was badly hurt early on, but kept the deck ; where 
 he was again wounded twice. His powder wa*,, 
 exhausted at last, and his ship slowly settling down 
 
Will and Circumstance. 119 
 
 into the sea ; " the vast fleet of Spaniards lying 
 round her in a ring, lilce dogs round a dying 
 lion, and wary of approaching him in his last 
 agony." 
 
 It was decided to blow up the ship ; a desperate 
 resolve the Spaniards anticipated, and so they kept 
 at a safe distance from the English ship, " doubting 
 lest Sir Richard would have blown up himself and 
 them, knowing his dangerous disposition." So 
 submit the English must, and did. Sir Richard 
 was taken on board the Spanish admiral's ship, 
 where in a few hours he sank, saying in Spanish, 
 " Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and 
 quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true 
 soldier ought to do, that hath fought for his country, 
 queen, religion, and honour, whereby my soul most 
 joyfully departeth out of this body, and shall always 
 leave behind it an everlasting fame of a valiant and 
 true soldier that hath done his duty as he was 
 bound to do." No wonder that " at the time all 
 England and all the world rang with the story. It 
 struck a deeper terror, though it was but the action 
 of a single ship, into the hearts of the Spanish 
 people ; it dealt a more deadly blow upon their fame 
 
120 The WtU Power. 
 
 and moral strength than the destruction of the 
 Armada." Not long afterwards Sir Walter Raleigli 
 ran his ship between two of the Spanish galleons 
 which had attacked the Revenge, and sank both of 
 them. In the attack on the Revenge the Spaniards 
 lost two ships and over 1,500 men. 
 
 Nor must the Bayard of Italy be forgotten, 
 Guiseppe Garibaldi, a patriot of the purest water. 
 As a sailor boy he visited Rome, and he says, 
 " Rome thenceforth became dear to me above all 
 else on earth " ; and he never ceased striving till 
 Rome was once more free from the papal yoke. 
 He was not long in joining a secret society under 
 Mazzini, which came to a disastrous end and left 
 him an outlaw. He then went to South America, 
 and fought for liberty there. Again success eluded 
 him, and he was made prisoner and cruelly treated. 
 Shortly afterwt "ds, however, he was in command of 
 some ships, fighting as before. Baffled in war, he 
 was successful in love ; having approached the lady 
 " with that determined will which never fails to 
 command success." And in Anita he found a help- 
 meet as fearless as himself Defeat, wounds, and 
 imprisonment all were his lot : but they in no wise 
 
Will and Ctrcumslance. 1 2 1 
 
 deterred him from further efforts ; and when the 
 revolutionary year of 1848 came, Garibaldi was 
 helping to fight the Austrians. His name was now 
 known, and soon he had a strong band of volunteers 
 around him ; but again defeat was in store for him. 
 Then he was the soul of the defence of Rome. 
 Beaten once more, he declared for Venice, but in 
 vain ; and " baffled, sorrowful, and weary," he went 
 to Genoa. He next retired to Caprera, until the 
 French war with Austria again brought him to the 
 front ; and his chagrin at the peace of Villafranca was 
 intense. Still Italy was progressing towards unity. 
 Then came the revolt of Sicily against the King of 
 Naples, and of course Garibaldi was once more a 
 leader-^with better fortune than before — with the 
 result that the dynasty of the Spanish Bourbons fell ; 
 to rise no more. Then came the mistake which led 
 to Aspromonte, where he was wounded severely ; and 
 wounded, too, by the bullets of Italian royalist troops. 
 But nevertheless, when the war of 1866 gave the 
 opportunity to strike a blow at Austria, Garibaldi 
 was ready to deliver it. Once more he fought for 
 Rome and suffered defeat ; but his determination 
 was unconquerable. At last, in fact, Rome was 
 
122 The Will Power. 
 
 free ; and " the lion of freedom " felt that his work 
 was accomplished — after so many defeats. 
 
 But now it may be well to turn to some of the 
 victories of peace, and see how will has met circum- 
 stance on other than warlike battlefields. Fowell 
 Buxton was no genius, and he knew it ; but he 
 believed that " he could do as well as other men 
 if he devoted to the pursuit double the time and 
 labour that they did." That is, he carefully studied 
 his different qualities and "knew his hand," and' 
 how to play it. He was a headstrong lad, but his 
 mother said, "Never mind, — he is self-willed now, — 
 you will see it turn out well in the end." She was 
 a wise mother, and guided her unruly lad with 
 prudence ; not expecting too much from him. 
 Fortunately, at fifteen, a time when the character 
 is forming fast, he was thrown among the Gurneys, 
 a very cultured people, and their influence upon 
 him was most beneficial. He took to -work, did 
 well at the university, married a Miss Gurney, 
 and went as a clerk to his uncle's brewery, " Truman 
 and Hanbury's." 
 
 Here his determined energy carried him to the 
 front, and he became head of the business. At 
 
Will and Circumstance. 123 
 
 thirty-two he entered parliament, where his firm- 
 ness of character soon made itself felt. He took up 
 the cause of the negro, for whom he fought with 
 unflinching persistence. On her deathbed his wife 
 pressed him "to make the cause of the slaves the 
 great object of his life." She died with this charge- 
 on her lips. On the day of the negro emancipation 
 his daughter, named after her mother, was married ; 
 and the man who believed in " invincible determi- 
 nation," writing to tell a friend of the event, added, 
 "and there is not a slave in the British colonies." 
 
 Josiah Wedgwood was the youngest of thirteen 
 children, bred and born a potter. A very common, 
 earthenware was then all England could command 
 of her own manufacture ; and none suspected in this 
 little delicate lad the founder of "the Potteries" as 
 they now are. He was apprenticed to the trade, and 
 worked as a " thrower " ; not necessarily hard work, 
 but far from easy. Shortly he had smallpox, which 
 left behind it mischief in his right knee, ultimately 
 necessitating the amputation of the limb years later. 
 All this time, however, crippled as he was, he worked 
 away, unable to take part in the sports of his 
 companions by his knee ; but, as Mr. Gladstone has 
 
124 '^^^ Will Power. 
 
 said, " it sent his mind inwards ; it drove him to 
 meditate upon the laws and secrets of his art." At 
 twenty-nine he became a master potter, desirous of 
 taking a position in the trade. By adding sihca to 
 the clay he succeeded in making a white ware 
 instead of the dirty-coloured products hitherto made. 
 Next he had to perfect his glazes. Then he had to 
 erect his furnaces. Then came the art taste. He 
 gave long prices for old examples, which he copied 
 accurately. Then he rediscovered the lost art of 
 painting on " biscuit ware " practised by the old 
 Etruscans ; and engaged Flaxman as his artist. He 
 ■ worked for the throne, and was made "royal potter" ; 
 and not only advanced himself, but did much for the 
 district. He found pottery in a primitive state ; but 
 before he had done England ceased to import high- 
 class pottery, and had begun to export it largely. 
 Wedgwood was not only a successful man, success- 
 ful after much defeat; but his enterprise laid the 
 foundation of a huge industry. 
 
 The story of Mr. S. C. Lister and "silk waste" 
 is a most instructive one. He had already improved 
 a wool-combing machine, by which, after very heavy 
 expenses, he had realized a fortune, when " silk 
 
Will and Circumstance. 125 
 
 waste" took his attentic>n. "It consisted of the 
 waste made from the manufacture of neat silk and 
 pierced cocoons, and as it came to Mr. Lister, 
 looked like mutilated ropes, dirty flocks, or mucila- 
 ginous hemp, and was knotted and sticky and choked 
 with sticks and leaves and dead silkworms." Out of 
 this unpromising material Mr. Lister manufactured 
 "silk velvets, velvets with a silk pile and a cotton back, 
 silk carpets, imitation sealskin, plush velvet ribbons, 
 corded ribbons, sewing silks, Japanese silks, poplins, 
 silk cleaning cloths for machinery, bath towels, 
 floorcloths, dishcloths, and so forth. And all from 
 the once despised silk waste ! " But how much 
 money had Mr. Lister expended, to say nothing of 
 time and thought, before this result was attained 1 
 At one time he was no less than ;£^350,ooo out of 
 pocket. What said the Right Hon. W. E. Forster 
 when unveiling a statue to Mr. Lister at Bradford? 
 He concluded, " What is it especially we are 
 honouring? It is the pluck which this man has 
 shown; it is the feeling that, having to do with the 
 worsted trade, he said to himself, 'Here is some- 
 thing which ought to be done ; I will, not rest until 
 I have found out how it can be done and having 
 
126 The Will Power. 
 
 found out how it can be done, where is the man who 
 will stop me doing it ? ' Now it was upon that 
 principle that he fought his long struggle ; and so 
 when we read the story of his struggles, ever since 
 1842, in his two great inventions, we raise this 
 statue to the man who has successfully fought the 
 battle, and hope that our sons and the sons of all, 
 rich and poor together, will come in after-days to 
 admire it ; not merely because it gives them the form 
 and features of a rich and successful man, but 
 because it gives them the form and features of a 
 man endowed with industry, with intellect, with 
 energy, with courage, with perseverance, and who 
 spared himself no pains in first ascertaining the 
 conditions of the problem he had to solve, and then 
 whose heart never fainted, whose will never relaxed, 
 in determining to carry out those conditions." 
 
 Sir Josiah Mason began the work of life at eight, 
 selling cakes in the street ; and it seems the little 
 fellow was popular with his customers. This was 
 an outdoor occupation only, so he learned shoe- 
 making for the wet days; but as he would only 
 work the best material, he could not make it pay. 
 Then he improved his reading. Then he took to 
 
Will and Circumstance 127 
 
 carpet-weaving, as became a Kidderminster youth ; 
 but not liking it, he went to Birmingham to see if he 
 could find there something he did like. Here he 
 married ; and went into the gilt toy trade as manager 
 for an uncle. Where he made nothing ; being badly 
 treated by his relative. Then he was introduced to 
 a split ring maker, Harrison, who made the first 
 steel pen seen in Birmingham, and after that he 
 prospered. Steel pens attracted his attention ; and 
 at that time the slit was made by hand with a 
 hammer and chisel after hardening. The secret of 
 making the slit in the soft steel previous to harden- 
 ing was the secret of the success of the steel pen 
 manufacture. Mason worked for Perry, and became 
 the largest steel pen maker in the world. But 
 " although he was the most extensive penmaker in 
 the world, his pens — for the greater part of the time 
 he was in business — bore the names of those who 
 sold them instead of that of him who made them." 
 With the capital acquired by penmaking he gave a 
 stimulus to the electro-plating business of Elkington. 
 The process was patented, but nobody would invest ; 
 so Elkington and Mason went into the. business and 
 worked the patent, with success. People told him 
 
128 The Will Power. 
 
 he would beggar himself; but they went on, and 
 success came at last, — as it did with the other 
 enterprises taken up by this resolute man. His 
 biographer says of him, " He had, to begin with, a 
 strong, powerful, almost iiresistible will. That 
 which he wanted he would have, and in a great 
 measure did have. Little or great, all objects and 
 purposes came within the range of his powerful will ; 
 and whoever and whatever he opposed, he surely 
 conquered in the end. Not that he was blindly 
 obstinate, or unwilling to take counsel. Another 
 great quality which he possessed — very helpful to 
 the accomplishment of his will — was absolute 
 patience. He knew how to wait. With patience 
 there went in close union a wonderful perseverance. 
 Mason was remarkably tenacious. He held firm to 
 his purpose, and worked it out with never-ceasing 
 vigilance and energy." Of what he acquired with 
 such industry, he gave most lavishly. 
 
 Sir John Brown, of Sheffield, of armour plate fame, 
 was the son of a slater. " The early circumstances 
 of the lad savoured of the rough school from which 
 so many dauntless heroes of industry have sprung ; 
 and which, by early accustoming its pupils to a share 
 
Will and Circumstance. 129 
 
 of the buffets of the world, prepare them to resist 
 manfully in later life the shocks of failure, dis- 
 couragement, and disaster." When he started the 
 Atlas Works for the production of " steel iron " he 
 was held to be pursuing a chimera. " But the 
 founder of the Atlas Works was not a man to 
 retreat before ridicule. Tenacity and resolution 
 were the guardian angels of his genius ; and through- 
 out his active career they never permitted him to 
 waver in the pursuit of an object which his judgment 
 commended. The adverse reception of his scheme 
 by his fellow-manufacturers stimulated rather than 
 damped his determination ; and before very long the 
 men who had foretold failure came to swell the tide 
 of his success. Such was the man : and ' Neither 
 chance nor fortune ' is the English rendering of the 
 motto that adorns Sir John Brown's coat of arms ; 
 and the words convey with sufficient clearness the 
 principles upon which he worked." 
 
 Of like character was Sir Titus Salt, of Saltaire. 
 The son of a farmer, afterwards a Bradford wool- 
 stapler, he became a buyer for his father. A certain 
 form of wool had been regarded as suitable only for 
 the " woollen " trade, and incapable of being drawn 
 
 9 
 
130 The Will Power. 
 
 out into the even thread of parallel fibres which 
 constitutes " worsted." Young Salt tried a sample 
 of this rejected wool all ways, and urged the 
 Bradford spinners to try it. " They declined to 
 listen to his proposals, however ; so, with that 
 dogged determination of purpose which has charac- 
 terised his whole business career, he resolved that, 
 rather than abandon the idea, he would try the 
 experiment on his own account, and he accordingly 
 set up as a worsted spinner and manufacturer in an 
 old mill." He flourished. Then his attention was 
 drawn to some " frowsy nondescript hair wool " 
 which had long lain about a Liverpool warehouse ; 
 and he took a sample of it home with him. When 
 he returned and offered to buy the lot, " all the 
 establishment stole a peep at the buyer of the 'South 
 American stuff.' The chief clerk had the curiosity 
 to speak to him and hear his reply. The cashier 
 touched his coat tails. The book-keeper, a thin man 
 in spectacles, examined his hat and gloves. The 
 porter openly grinned at him." Still they knew the 
 " quiet customer " was " Yorkshire." After many 
 trials he brought out " alpacas " ; and his magnificent 
 buildings at Saltaire tell of his success. 
 
Will and Circumstance. 131 
 
 Such are some of the stories told in that interesting 
 book " Fortunes Made in Business." 
 
 It will be apparent to all that in most of these 
 instances genius was only inexhaustible energy and 
 patience born of will. " Untoward accidents will 
 sometimes happen," said Richard Sharp, "but after 
 many, many years of thoughtful experience, I can 
 truly say that nearly all those who began life with 
 me have succeeded or failed as they deserved." It 
 is a common remark with the writer, " We get what 
 we deserve." When William Lloyd Garrison com- 
 menced the publication of the Liberator, he began 
 with these memorable words : " I am in earnest, I 
 will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not 
 retreat a single inch, and / will be heard" He has 
 been heard, with what result the country knows. 
 The free negroes of America, and the white men 
 too, owe an everlasting debt of gratitude to William 
 Lloyd Garrison. No abilities will bear fruit without 
 industry and perseverance. 
 
 " Come, Firm Resolve, take thou the van. 
 Thou stalk o' carle-hem.^ in man." 
 
 The " firm resolve " in Burns' opinion is the first 
 unmeral in the character for success in life. Start 
 
132 The Will Power. 
 
 then, reader, if unengaged, and do something ; and 
 remember " if it is worth doing at all, it is worth 
 doing well." That is the plan for a youth who 
 wishes to get on in the world. It is no good to 
 follow the example of Mr. Micawber and " wait for 
 something to turn up." When that something does 
 turn up, depend upon it, a sharp harder-working 
 fellow will snap it up before the procrastinator is 
 quite satisfied about making the effort to utilise the 
 opportunity. Sloth, however, cannot be instantly 
 transformed into energy 
 
 The whole record of success tells not of fortune, 
 or luck ; but rather of earnestness and unflinching 
 determination. We may admit that there are cases 
 where " a stroke of luck " has done a great deal for 
 a man ; but that man was certainly in a position to 
 make the most of the luck when it came his way. 
 He had not dawdled before ; but had been ready to 
 seize opportunity by her forelock. And never in 
 the world's history was the competition so great, 
 so keen, in every line of life as it is at the present 
 day. Crowding, pushing, elbowing their way, men 
 must work now to hold their own ; let alone to get 
 ahead of their competitors. The man who is satisfied 
 
Will and Circumstance. 133 
 
 with perfunctory work will find himself losing ground 
 year after year, dropping astern in the race of 
 life ; getting the worst of it in the struggle for 
 existence, learning that 
 
 " It is not in our stars, 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings," 
 
 at the end of life wishing for another " start." 
 It is not only in discovery, land or maritime, in 
 warfare, whether in arms or peaceful arts, dogged 
 perseverance has overcome obstacles apparently in- 
 surmountable. One of the most distinguished men of 
 science of to-day tells us how he started in a humble 
 position in life. Professor Tyndall, F.R.S., com- 
 menced in the Ordnance Survey as the first step to 
 becoming a civil engineer. A year or two later he 
 joined the Preston Mechanics' Institute. When 
 surveying for railroads he had to get his sleep as 
 he could by snatches of a few minutes at a time 
 on a deal table with Babbage and Callet's " Loga- 
 rithms " for a pillow. Later on he accepted a post 
 at Queenwood College, in Hampshire, from whence 
 he fought his way to a university fife in Germany 
 by means of his hard-earned savings ; won by such 
 
134 'T^^^ Will Power. 
 
 toil and such self-denial. Respected and honoured 
 as he now is, standing on a conspicuous pinnacle of 
 fame, he climbed up from lowly beginnings by a 
 very steep gradient indeed. 
 
 Law and medicine contain many instructive 
 stories of success won by long endeavour, unending 
 toil, and dogged perseverance. Space will not 
 permit of instances being quoted here. A word or 
 two, however, may be said about the late Dr. 
 Mahomed. Finding that his prospects in London 
 would be furthered by becoming a graduate of an 
 English university, he took up his residence in 
 Cambridge ; where he kept his terms by sleeping 
 there at nights. Each morning saw him enter the 
 train and study there, his work in London occupy- 
 ing the day ; after which he would returri to Cam- 
 bridge to carry on his studies as an undergraduate. 
 While a hard-working London physician, with many 
 hospital duties to discharge, he went through a 
 Cambridge undergraduate's labours, — as it were, in 
 the hours of relaxation. 
 
 One more example of the successful struggle of 
 "will over circumstance" is furnished by the career 
 of the late Postmaster-General, Mr. Fawcett. When 
 
Will and Circumstance. 135 
 
 a youth, he was blinded by a gunshot. To most 
 men complete blindness would have been a compara- 
 tive death-blow as to a career in life. Not so to Mr. 
 Fawcett. He determined to win a living, maimed 
 though he was. He carried on his studies at 
 Cambridge, and became a professor; he went into 
 public life ; he studied India till the natives called 
 him their "blind champion " ; he threw him- 
 self into politics; he rose to be a legislator, and 
 was the most active postmaster-general we have 
 yet known since Rowland Hill. In speaking of 
 his failure to win Brighton, Allanson Picton 
 writes, " But indeed he was one of those uncon- 
 querable natures to which defeat seems only to 
 give fresh impulse towards victory." Not only did 
 he accomplish all this by dint of an indomitable 
 will, but, what is even more wonderful, he deter- 
 mined to continue his outdoor sports. Blind though 
 he was, he rowed and pulled stroke; by linking 
 arms with a friend he skated : he rode on horseback ; 
 and what is more, he continued to angle. After his 
 death the Illustrated News gave illustrations of him 
 so occupied, and also of his appearance at the 
 counter of a London restaurant ; all of which tell 
 
136 The Will Power. 
 
 of the unconquerable will which alone enabled him 
 to do all this. Once, when out with a friend, a 
 blind beggar asked alms. Mr. Fawcett asked him 
 why he begged. He pleaded he was blind and 
 could do nothing. Mr. Fawcett replied, " I am blind 
 too, but I earn my living.'' But then few men have 
 had such intensity of purpose about them. Blind- 
 ness does not incapacitate some men. Zisca, the 
 Hussite general, was blind ; but for all that he was 
 a most formidable opponent. John Metcalfe, though 
 blind, spent his time in planning out roads, especially 
 on the Peak of Derbyshire ; just about the last 
 thing one would think a blind man was fit for. 
 Such examples tell that even hopeless darkness 
 cannot prevent a man taking his place amongst the 
 world's workers ; though it must make life very 
 hard to him. 
 
 It is simply impossible to do justice to woman's 
 will, to feminine volitional dynamics, because she 
 exercises it, or them over those in immediate relation 
 with her rather than in a public manner. We have 
 heard of how Queen Philippa ruled when her husband 
 was abroad ; of the deeds of Margaret of Anjou. 
 We know the public influence exercised by Queen 
 
M^ill and Circumstance. 137 
 
 Mary under the incentive of Castilian bigotry ; of the 
 indomitable will of Mary, Queen of Scots, up to the 
 last moment when her undaunted head was laid on 
 the block-; we know the heroic part played by 
 Henrietta Maria in aid of her husband, King Charles 
 the First ; we know how Caroline of Anspach, with 
 her minister Sir Robert Walpole, ruled England. 
 Still more do we see a public character in Elizabeth, 
 "good Queen Bess." Whatever may have been the 
 taint of the Boleyn blood, Elizabeth was surroundec 
 by such a phalanx of faithful men as no other 
 queen — even Maria Theresa, Catharine of Russia, 
 Cleopatra, Semiramis, or Boadicea — ever gathered 
 round her, all of whom served her willingly. She 
 had queenly attributes which commanded them, 
 despite her crooked ways in diplomacy. When 
 Spain was striving to crush England " the national 
 unity proved stronger than the religious strife. 
 When the Catholic lords flocked to the camp at 
 Tilbury, or put off to join the fleet in the Channel, 
 Elizabeth could pride herself on a victory as great as 
 the victory over the Armada. She had won it by 
 her patience and moderation, by her refusal to lend 
 herself to the fanaticism of the Puritan or the 
 
138 Tlie Will Power. 
 
 reaction of the Papist, by her sympathy with trie 
 mass of the people, by her steady and unflinching 
 preference of national unity to any passing considera- 
 tions of safety or advantage. For thirty years, 
 amidst the shock of religious passions at home and 
 abroad, she had reigned not as a Catholic or as a 
 Protestant queen, but as a queen of England ; and 
 it was to England, Catholic and Protestant alike, 
 that she could appeal in her hour of need. "Let 
 tyrants fear," she exclaimed in words that still ring 
 like the sound of a trumpet, as she appeared among 
 her soldiers. " Let tyrants fear ! I have always so 
 behaved myself that under God I have placed my 
 chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts 
 and goodwill of my subjects 1 And therefore I am 
 come among you, as you see, resolved in the midst 
 and heat of the battle to live and die amongst 
 you all." Who would not serve under such a 
 queen ? 
 
 The instance of Joan of Arc, " the maid of Orleans," 
 is one of remarkable influence, difificult to explain 
 now; but surely not to be explained by the hypo- 
 thesis which burnt her alive at the stake as a 
 witch ! 
 
Will and Circumstance. 139 
 
 The tendency of the present age is to respect the 
 character of women, as did our Norse forefathers 
 with their " Alrunen maidens." Chivalry ended in 
 the corruption of woman : it professed to hold her a 
 goddess ; but, in fact, it degraded her to a plaything, 
 and placed her in the lowest position a woman can 
 hold. No attempt was made to cultivate her under- 
 standing; consequently she was left at the mercy 
 of her impulses, — capricious and wilful. 
 
 "The man's a fool who tries by force or skill 
 To stem the torrent of a woman's will, 
 For when she will, she will, you may depend on't, 
 And when she won't, she won't, and there's an end on't," 
 
 might have been a fair conclusion on the part of the 
 cynical poet at a bypast time ; but it is not fair to 
 women now. The woman's part is in relation to the 
 inner life of man. In the nursery she moulds the 
 character ; and we can only pity the child brought 
 up among hirelings. She watches over the 
 mental growth when the trying time of adolescence 
 comes ; she is an intimate friend and counsellor, the 
 best a man can have if a true woman, — capable of 
 understanding anything and everything so far as one 
 
140 The Will Power. 
 
 she loves is concerned therein. She may at times 
 be useful as a public character, like Harriet 
 Martineau : but the domestic sphere is rather hers ; 
 and her results are seen in the outward actions of 
 men under her hidden influence. The men of a 
 household are often very much what the women 
 of it make them ! 
 
THE WILL-FIGHT. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE WILL FIGHT. 
 
 " He holds him with his glittering eye. 
 
 The marriage guest stood still, 
 
 And listens like a three-year child ; 
 
 The mariner hath his will." Coleridge. 
 
 ' I ""HE conflict of will, the power to command others, 
 has been spoken of frequently in the preceding 
 chapters. Yet what is this will-power which in- 
 fluences others ? What is it that makes us accept, 
 and adopt too, the advice of one person ; while 
 precisely the same advice from another has been 
 rejected ? It is the weight or force of will which 
 insensibly influences us : the force of will behind 
 the advice. That is what it is ! The person who 
 thus forces his, or her advice upon us has no more 
 power to enforce it than others ; but all the same we 
 
144 1^^^ Will Power. 
 
 do as requested. We accept from one what we 
 reject from another. One person says of something 
 contemplated, " Oh, but you must not," yet we do it 
 all the same ; though that person may be in a posi- 
 tion to make us regret the rejection of that counsel. 
 Another person says, " Oh, but you mustn't," and we 
 desist ; though we may, if so disposed, set this 
 latter person's opinion at defiance with impunity. 
 It is not the fear of consequences, nor of giving 
 offence, which determines the adoption of the latter 
 person's advice, while it has been rejected when given 
 by the first. It depends upon the character, or will- 
 power of the individual advising whether we accept 
 the advice, or reject it. This character often depends 
 little, if at all in some cases, upon the intellect, or 
 even on the moral qualities, the goodness or badness 
 of the individual. It is itself an imponderable some- 
 thing ; yet it carries weight with it. This will is 
 seen in the nursery, where one child is master; 
 nobody exactly knows how. It is not particularly 
 combative, nor is it stubborn in conflict ; it may 
 even be more than ordinarily obedient to those in 
 authority over it : but it is master of its peers, and 
 lords it over its brothers and sisters. It possesses 
 
The Will Fight. 145 
 
 character, in fact. It holds its place by the posses- 
 sion of that will-power which brings men to the 
 front in emergencies, as was the case with Clive in 
 India. There may be abler men, cleverer men ; but 
 it is the one possessed of will who rises to the sur- 
 face at these times, — the one who can by some 
 subtle power make other men obey him. . 
 
 All successful schoolmasters, and ' still more 
 schoolmistresses, possess this power to a marked 
 extent. Without it they could never have been suc- 
 cessful ; it is the secret of their success, indeed ; that 
 which enables them to bear down and overcome the 
 will of recalcitrant and rebellious pupils. One of the 
 masters who possesses it to a marked degree under 
 a very pleasant exterior, told me once, in answer 
 to a question about the management of boys, his 
 own plan with an insubordinate boy. " If you have 
 made up your mind to be stubborn and do your own 
 way," he says to him, " why, of course, you will have 
 it ; nobody can prevent you. But if you think I am 
 going to fight with you, you are mistaken. I shall 
 simply get rid of you." Youthful ardour cools quickly 
 at this. The boy is gratified by the admission that if 
 determined to be stubborn, he will be successful ; 
 
 10 
 
146 The Will Power. 
 
 his vanity is soothed, at the same time that he 
 recognises the uselessness of attempting to go on 
 only to be removed from the scene where he wished 
 to be " the observed of all observers." The will 
 underlying the master is quite as strong as his own, 
 he finds out ; while the teacher has the advantage of 
 being master of the situation. Schoolmistresses, by 
 dint of long practice, become adepts at crushing a 
 wilful pupil ; and the successful conflict is often 
 impressed upon them till it is even visible to the eye. 
 It indeed sometimes stands in their way when they, 
 in turn, have to receive orders. No weak-willed 
 medical man will ever succeed in making a success- 
 ful schoolmistress do what is disagreeable to herself; 
 unless he has her on his side of her own will and 
 judgment ! 
 
 It has always seemed to me that the possession of 
 this will-power is invaluable to those who have 
 charge of the insane ; and that an asylum superin- 
 tendent lacking will-power is never more than a 
 moderate success. 
 
 It was the possession of this will-power in Jermyn 
 which made Mrs. Transome subservient to him, 
 against the dictates of her intellect, in spite of his 
 
The Will Fight. 147 
 
 neglect of her when his ends were served, a horrible 
 consciousness for a woman; she knew how deeply 
 she was wronged, yet she was mute when they met : 
 which carried the guilty conscience of the one on 
 steadily when the other faltered. Mrs. Transome 
 was a keen-witted woman, fond of authority, delightr 
 ing in keeping her tenants under her thumb; yet 
 she could make no fight at all when the conflict 
 lay with Jermyn, albeit she despised him, — and had 
 good grounds for her contempt. With all these 
 potent forces in action, she was subordinate to him ; 
 he was the victor, and she the vanquished in the 
 will fight. It was this quality in her son Harold 
 that, soon made her feel that she was " only an old 
 woman" to him. It was part, and a strong part 
 of that fatherhood which Harold hated, and which 
 made Mrs. Transome dread conflict betwixt the son 
 and his father. The possession of this will-power 
 made Harold crush Jermyn when the time and the 
 opportunity came. Its possession by Jermyn enabled 
 him in turn to poison the rest of Harold's life, and 
 make his victory scarcely worth the price paid for 
 it. Jermyn knew what that disclosure would cost 
 him; yet he deliberately made it. The further 
 
148 The Will Power. 
 
 results George Eliot has not chosen to sketch for 
 us ; we can conjecture that in the end there was 
 pretty much a drawn battle ; they were equally 
 matched, and the result remained doubtful. In 
 neither father nor son did the feelings of the woman 
 count for anything; and yet that woman was no 
 fool or weakling, and stood in intimate relations to 
 both. Indeed, as regards will and character Mrs. 
 Transome was a Lingon, and master of most of the 
 people with whom she came in contact. It was this 
 will-power which placed Oliver Cromwell at the 
 head of his peers ; it was this force that made 
 Napoleon a master of men, however conscious they 
 were of his brutal indifference to them, — except so 
 far as they could be useful to him : it was that indeed 
 which enabled him to command men, more even 
 than his intellect. The intellect failed in its calcula- 
 tions at last, and his career ended in disaster. In 
 his vain illusive attempt to erect once more the 
 empire of Charlemagne, to rule from the Atlantic 
 to the Carpathian Mountains, his will-power was the 
 most remarkable part of a very remarkable person. 
 In Prince Bismarck the will-power has the same 
 resistless energy about it, which bears down all 
 
The Will Fight. 149 
 
 opposition. William the Conqueror had it ; and so 
 have had most successful men. It is present in the 
 successful merchant ; and is almost indispensable in 
 the person who is brought largely into contact with 
 a variety of individuals. The manufacturer may 
 command success from the fertility of his brain, and 
 the combinations he can form and have carried out 
 by others ; but where the personal element is con- 
 stantly being tested its possession is indispensable 
 for success. Yet it is not courage or bravery 
 merely ! It entails the necessity for the coexistence 
 of courage, could scarcely indeed exist without it. 
 But mere physical courage is not character. 
 
 It is certainly not intellect. We not uncommonly 
 see in a household a clever, accomplished, learned 
 man, respected outside his house by every one.; but 
 a nonentity in it. He is dominated over by a 
 commonplace woman, a shrew, who never possessed 
 either good looks or money to entitle her to rule 
 with despotic sway. Yet she does so all the same ! 
 Her servants know what she is ; yet they feel 
 compelled to obey her. She does not indulge in 
 outbursts of violence ; yet she gets her own way. 
 Her children know it will be the worse for them if 
 
150 The Will Power. 
 
 they do not attend to her monitions, as well as her 
 admonitions ; yet they are indifferent as to whether 
 they comply with their father's requests, or not. 
 They may brave his displeasure safely ; he cannot 
 enforce a compliance with his wishes, and they know 
 she will not compel them in this matter. He knows 
 well the position ; feels the yoke gall ; sees the utter 
 falsity of the thing, its mockery of domestic life ; 
 yet he does not rebel. The intellect, the good sense, 
 the clear conscience, the wish to do right, are all 
 there. He may possess wealth, birth, and culture, 
 and she may have none of these; but in the will 
 fight she is master, — as was the case with John and 
 Sarah Churchill. 
 
 This will struggle goes on universally. In the 
 young aristocrat, who gets his tailor to make an- 
 other advance in defiance of his conviction that he 
 will never get his m&ney back. It goes on betwixt 
 lawyer and client, betwixt doctor and patient, betwixt 
 banker and borrower, betwixt buyer and seller. It 
 is not the tact which enables a person behind a 
 counter to induce customers to buy what they did 
 not intend to buy, and which when bought gives 
 them no satisfaction ; though it is linked therewith 
 
The Will Fight. 151 
 
 for the tact to be successful. Whenever two 
 persons meet in business, or any other relation in 
 life up to love-making, there is this will-fight going 
 on ; commonly enough without any consciousness 
 of the struggle. There is a dim consciousness of 
 the result, but none of the processes. It often takes 
 years of the intimacy of married life to find out 
 with whom of the pair the mastery really lies. 
 Often the far stronger character, to all appearance, 
 has to yield; it is this will element which underlies 
 the statement, " The race is not to the swift, nor the 
 battle to the strong." In " Middlemarch " we firttl'iif 
 Lydgate a grand aggregation of qualities, yet shallow, 
 hard, selfish Rosamond masters him thoroughly in the 
 end. He was not deficient in will-power, possessed 
 more than an average share indeed of character ; but 
 in the fight he went down at last under the on- 
 slaught of the intense stubborn will of his narrow- 
 minded spouse. Their will contest was the colli- 
 sion of a large warm nature, like a capable human 
 hand, with a hard, narrow, selfish nature, like a 
 steel button : the hand only bruised itself, while the 
 button remained unaifected. 
 
 So with Marlborough and his Sarah. "Though it 
 
152 The Will Power. 
 
 is impossible to discover in anything she ever did, 
 said, or wrote, any indication of superior understand- 
 ing, her fierce passions and strong will enabled her 
 often to rule a husband who was born to rule grave 
 senates and mighty armies. His courage, that 
 courage which the most perilous emergencies of war 
 only made cooler and more steady, failed him when 
 he had to encounter his Sarah's ready tears and 
 voluble reproaches, the poutings of her lip, and the 
 tossing of her head. History exhibits to us few 
 spectacles more remarkable than that of a great and 
 wise man who, when he had combined vast and 
 profound schemes of policy, could carry them into 
 effect only by inducing one foolish woman, who was 
 often unmanageable, to manage another woman more 
 foolish still " (Queen Anne). 
 
 This will-power is seen in the man who bides his 
 time, who knows how to wait, — which involves the 
 " when " and the " why." Circumstances may stand 
 in his way, and he must wait ; but the will is neither 
 bent, broken, nor sapped by that fact, and is all 
 along as assertive as ever, — even when apparently 
 in abeyance. Yet character is not mere perse- 
 verance. Again, it is something more. It is an 
 
The Will Fight. 155 
 
 entity of itself! Probably one of the best illustra- 
 tions of it is that furnished by a Staffordshire story 
 told me by a friend of mine. He and some others 
 were driving through some of the less civilised parts 
 of that county, when they called at a" house the 
 owner of which was very proud of the savagery and 
 prowess of his house-dog. He was expatiating on 
 this theme to his visitors, and declared he would like 
 to see any man go within the dog's chain. " Go 
 within his chain 1 " said the driver, a native of the 
 county, the tone of his voice telling of his wounded 
 egotism, his powers thus impugned. "Why, I'll 
 fetch him out by the ears for a quart of ale ! " With 
 this he threw his coat up well over his head, like 
 a huge cowl, and then on all fours he steadily 
 approached the dog. Had the dog recognised he 
 was a man, he would probably have known how 
 to fight him; flown at him and seriously worried 
 him without a moment's hesitation. But the dog 
 had no previous experience of such an animal as 
 was now before him, and passively looked at this 
 new object. The struggle was reduced to a pure 
 " will fight," fought by the eyes. As the strange 
 minimal manifested no fear, the dog had to give in ; 
 
154 The Will Power. 
 
 had the stranger flinched, or his eye lost its steady 
 look of composure for a moment, the dog would 
 have been on to him in an instant. But he would 
 not be afraid, so the dog had to ; and retreated into 
 his kennel, whither the new animal followed him, 
 and dragged him out of the kennel by his ears, 
 — howling with terror and dismay. Here the will 
 fight was fought out without any complications ; the 
 man was a rough fellow, but he understood some- 
 thing of fighting, and, what was more, something 
 of the nature of dogs. He knew he had the dog at 
 a disadvantage, and that if he showed no fear, the 
 dog necessarily must. Yet there was no reason to 
 suppose that the dog was less savage or less 
 courageous after the encounter than before, when 
 he had to contend with a natural object with which 
 he was familiar. 
 
 The steady conflict of the eye is familiar to many 
 of us. The boy looks at his mother to see if she 
 is in earnest in her threat ; when older he likewise 
 looks at his schoolmaster to read his purpose. Two 
 men or women look at each other steadily ; no word 
 is said ; yet the conflict is over soon, and one walks 
 ahead' of the other ever after. Oliver Wendell 
 
The Will Fight. 155 
 
 Holmes knows the will fight well, and describes it 
 thus : — 
 
 " The Koh-i-noor's face turned so white with rage 
 that his blue-black moustache and beard looked 
 fearful seen against it. He grinned with wrath, 
 and caught at a tumbler, as if he would have thrown 
 its contents at the speaker. The young Marylander 
 fixed his clear steady eye upon him, and laid his 
 hand on his arm, carelessly almost, but the Jewel 
 felt it was held so that he could not move it. It 
 was of no use. The youth was his master in 
 muscle, and in that deadly Indian hug in which men 
 wrestle with their eyes, over in five seconds, but 
 breaks one of their two backs, and is good for three- 
 score years and ten, one trial enough, — settles the 
 whole matter, — ^just as when two feathered songsters 
 of the barnyard, game and dunghill, come together. 
 After a jump or two at each other, and a few sharp 
 kicks, there is an end of it ; and it is ' Apres vous, 
 monsieur,' with the beaten party in all the social 
 relations for all the rest of his days." 
 
 Emily Bronte sketched out her ideal of a being 
 possessed of immense will-power in a thorough 
 ruffian — Heathcliff. A massive muscular brute I 
 
156 The Will Power. 
 
 Well, it was a girl's conception of a strong man ; 
 but I think I liave seen some quiet inoffensive-look- 
 ing men in spectacles who could very soon have 
 shewn the ruffian where the superiority lay. " Here- 
 ward the Wake," the last of the Saxons, would 
 probably have given a satisfactory account of him 
 in no long time ; and perhaps not have felt very 
 acutely conscious of having performed any great 
 feat therein. 
 
 It is a great mistake to suppose that this will is 
 disposed to air itself on all occasions ; far from it. 
 It often has a tendency to conceal itself, and is not 
 rarely found under an exterior of much pleasantness. 
 There are men, and women too, who present an 
 appearance of such politeness that they seem to 
 possess no will of their own ; they apparently exist 
 merely to do what is agreeable to others ; but just 
 wait till the time comes, and then the latent will- 
 power is revealed : and we find under this gant de 
 velour the main de fer, — and no mistake, about it. 
 It is the secret of the diplomatist. Talleyrand 
 possessed it to a remarkable degree, and was a cool, 
 bold, successful diplomatist, who knew men tho- 
 roughly; Metternich aspired to be a Talleyrand 
 
The Will i^ight. 157 
 
 by active deceit, — not by seeing through mer^, but by 
 essaying to mislead them, — and his attempt produced 
 an impression very unfortunate for Austrian diplo- 
 macy. Cavour possessed the power, and used it 
 wisely. Of course it depends upon the qualities with 
 which it is linked how far this will-power may be 
 a useful attribute; or only tend to make an evil 
 character more pronounced. 
 
 Tricks are played with this will-power when in 
 actual conflict. The barrister, familiar with the 
 scene around him, practised in the wiles of cross- 
 examination, can browbeat or confuse a witness 
 for whom he is no match if placed on a fair field, 
 without favour or advantage. Lord Coleridge over- 
 came the famous claimant at first ; but a day or 
 two's familiarity with the performance, and the 
 claimant fairly worsted him, completely vanquished 
 him indeed. The advantage of being on a known 
 field is acknowledged from the cock who is master 
 of his own dunghill upwards inimitably. Advantage 
 may be possessed or taken of another so that the 
 will fight has not a fair field, one of the two being 
 handicapped. This may do all very well for that 
 individual contest or wrestle; but the time will 
 
158 The Will Power. 
 
 come, sooner or later, if the contest continues, when 
 the fight will be made on equal terms ; and then the 
 issue is reversed. 
 
 The blusterer and the procrastinator are neither 
 possessed of much will-power ; and it is simply 
 amusing, as well as psychologically interesting, to see 
 a blusterer in authority disposing of a matter finally, 
 as he vainly imagines ; when really the matter is 
 but being opened up, not settled at all. But the 
 blusterer likes to cherish the idea that the battle is 
 over, the matter disposed of, and he is victorious. 
 Indeed, he feels rather injured when he discovers 
 the actual state of affairs ; and is inclined to think 
 that he has been misled by others, when he has 
 only deceived himself. 
 
 In connection with the will fight stands " the 
 utility of etiquette." By a fence of formality, two 
 wills are kept apart when a conflict is probable. 
 The will fight is, as Oliver Wendell Holmes puts it, 
 a " deadly Indian hug " ; it is impossible for it to be 
 conducted when the opponents are separated at 
 some distance from each other. Consequently 
 etiquette is a sure protection, and is nearly equal to 
 " the dignity that doth hedge a king." Society has 
 
The Will Fight. ] 59 
 
 its unwritten laws of etiquette, which keep the 
 will fight from coining off as frequently as it other- 
 wise would do. They tend, by prohibiting conflict, 
 to allow persons to associate together on terms of 
 equality for long without finding out which is the 
 stronger and which the weaker, as regards the bulk 
 of persons ; and so keep off any sense of discomfi- 
 ture from those to whom it soon would be brought 
 home if not so protected. 
 
 Leaders of society, male and female, have to fight 
 their way upwards ; a look, a curl of the upper lip, 
 a shrug of the shoulders, and some one is down 
 never to rise again. At other times the two approach 
 each other, and perhaps never really come to fight 
 till battle is necessary and unavoidable. They spar 
 at each other at times, just to keep up the mutual 
 measure of each other ; but this mimic war is quite 
 sufficient to keep those around in awe and in order, 
 — to remind them of that brief bypast struggle in 
 which they went down before the resistless force of 
 the volitional dynamics of these born rulers. " The 
 drawn battle," the confession of equality, is not quite 
 unknown ; and as quarrels in war have been regarded 
 as equal, and it is impossible to award the palm of 
 
i6o The Will Power. 
 
 victory to either, so in diplomacy, in politics, in 
 society ; yea, even in municipal councils and in 
 vestries, " the drawn battle " is not unknown or un- 
 recognised, — though not formulated in words. 
 
 Real power disdains the protection of formality. 
 The consciousness of strength is sufficient in itself. 
 The owner of will force is not afraid to let another 
 come close to him, in his confidence in his capacity 
 to hold his own is open to attack indeed. Feeble- 
 ness builds round it its fence of formality. Especially 
 is this the case when age is laying its palsying hiand 
 on men. Who does not know that proper, strict, 
 decorous, staid old gentleman who is the chairman of 
 a board of guardians, or the senior magistrate of a 
 petty sessions ? Never perhaps conspicuous for his 
 intellect at his best, the element of cunning shows 
 itself the more clearly when advancing age is cutting 
 down the higher qualities. Conscious of waning 
 capacity, he resorts to the protection of formality, 
 and keeps every one at a distance — so far as is 
 possible. He has to be treated with the greatest 
 deference ; no expression of opinion of his must be 
 talked of lightly ; no irreverent junior must call in 
 question or venture to debate on his oracular utter- 
 
The Will Fight. i6i 
 
 ances; the clerk bows before him in unquestioning 
 loyalty and faith. The prosy old gentleman raises 
 difSculties which never existed except in his own 
 brain, and then revels in the idea of his cleverness 
 in laying these creations of his imagination ; but the 
 rest must look on gravely and seriously : the slightest 
 expression of doubt as to the reality of the mimic 
 performance would excite the keenest indignation in 
 the senile actor. Deference he expects, and will 
 have if he can enforce it; and generally he is in such 
 a position that he can make it too unpleasant to fight 
 with him, until something serious actually does 
 necessitate conflict. And so the farce goes on, until 
 it becomes necessary to stop it ; and the old gentle- 
 man has to be bowled gently over, to his profound 
 horror and astonishment, when some competent person 
 tackles him in earnest. His senile stockade of for- 
 mality and etiquette has served long to protect the 
 failing brain by keeping every one at a distance ; 
 except those who approached with deference and 
 humility, with a distinct consciousness of the dis- 
 tance at which he stood above them. It also served 
 to keep off any bolder spirit who might threaten to 
 intrude upon his mental privacy. If he possess a 
 
 II 
 
1 62 The Will Power. 
 
 considerable amount of tact, the real state of matters 
 may never be discovered in public ; or those who do 
 discover it keep their secret to themselves. The 
 women of his household, however, know exactly how 
 matters stand; and flatter him by wearing that 
 deferential air he loves to see in all around him. 
 But they manoeuvre him all the same, and amuse 
 and occupy his time in domestic intrigues and petty 
 diplomacy ; which have a special attraction for the 
 brain that has seen its best days. The poor old 
 gentleman lives on, dimly corrcijus of his being an 
 imposture ; requiring more flattery and more fooling 
 as he becomes more fatuous. Yet to one who knows 
 anything of the systematic study of character the 
 whole game is transparent enough ; just as he knows 
 that certain savages erect stockades around otherwise 
 unprotected villeges ; carry the stockade, and the 
 village is defenceless. When he sees the stockade 
 he 'knows from the habits of the natives the state of 
 the village within. When he sees an old gentleman 
 fenced in by a stockade of formality, he knows per- 
 fectly well the helplessness of the individual behind 
 it. Just knock down the stockade and come to close 
 quarters, and the contest is over; the poor old pre- 
 
The Will Fight. 163 
 
 tender has no reserves, no refuge left to him. It is 
 not the strength of the imposing-looking stockade of 
 etiquette, it is the ignorance of others who are im- 
 pressed by it, that is his real" protection. His 
 defence is no defence when the assailant knows the 
 whole circumstances. But it is wanton cruelty to 
 undeceive the old man unnecessarily ; the overthrow 
 of his rampart is only justifiable when necessity in a 
 good cause compels it. It would not be fair to un- 
 earth this pretence at capacity wantonly ; to expose 
 the unreality of his defences to public gaze out of 
 mere mischievousness ; simply because a knowledge 
 df the reality exists, and detects the sham of his ela- 
 borate social stockade. 
 
 Close quarters are involved in the conflict of the 
 will fight ; consequently society, though only " seeing 
 through a glass darkly," recognises the utility of 
 etiquette, as well as tLe convenience of social laws. 
 But "senile stockades" do not impose on everybody.? 
 
 This matter of stockades of etiquette is thus 
 spoken of by White, the author of "The Eighteen 
 Christian Centuries," when explainmg the court 
 
 * This chapter appeared almost, as it stands, some time 
 go in Good Words. 
 
164 Tfie Will Power. 
 
 formalities of the Roman emperors, contrasting, as 
 they did, with repubhcan simplicity : " It was from 
 deep policy Diocletian introduced this system. 
 Ceremony imposes on the vulgar, and makes inti- 
 macy impossible. Etiquette is the refuge of failing 
 power, and compensates by external show for in- 
 herent weakness, as stiifness and formality are the 
 refuge of dulness and mediocrity in private life." 
 The device by which Diocletian imposed on the 
 Roman senators has been constantly if uncon- 
 sciously adopted by those who wish to impose by 
 an unreal strength. It is deceit, imposture; and 
 as it ultimately failed with the Roman emperors of 
 old, so it fails with modern imitators. It is the 
 opposite of the words spoken by Isaiah — "In 
 quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." 
 It 'is indeed a vain and weak device, only imposing 
 on the vulgar. 
 
THE WILL IN DISEASE. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE WILL IN DISEASE. 
 
 " "VT" OU must have a blister on, or you will die," 
 ■^ said her physician to the redoubtable Sarah, 
 first Duchess of Marlborough, when suffering from 
 pleurisy. " I will not have a blister on, and I will 
 not die," said the indomitable Sarah. And she did 
 neither, The woman who mastered John Churchill 
 and Anne Stuart was not going to succumb to a 
 pleurisy ! And in disease the influence of the will 
 is as potent as elsewhere. It cannot rescue a 
 person from the clutch of a mortal malady; but if 
 the disease is compatible with recovery, the will 
 makes the difference often betwixt death and life. 
 When Douglas Jerrold was once at death's door, 
 and the physician told him he must die, his answer 
 was, "What, and leave a family of helpless chil- 
 
i68 The Will Power. 
 
 dren ? I won't die ! " and die he did not ; at that 
 time at least. A strong motive to Hve positively 
 keeps some people alive, as it did with Douglas 
 Jerrold. The will stands in some curious relations 
 to he Hh, or rather disturbances of , health. The 
 cases of imaginary disease which rest causally upon 
 disorder of the will, or morbid manifestation of will, 
 seen outside of asylums; are not rare. They occur 
 mostly in young women, usually those who may 
 be said to be of a nervous constitution. Some- 
 times the patient is highly intelligent; at other 
 times the nervous system is but imperfectly de- 
 veloped. Be that as it may, a disorder of the 
 will takes place ; and this, in turn, starts some 
 bodily malady in which it finds expression. Some- 
 times there is loss of speech; sometimes there is 
 paralysis, maybe of the legs, maybe of one limb, 
 Or the patient declares her inability to get up from 
 her bed, as not unfrequently happens with not very 
 strong-minded girls after an unsuccessful love affair. 
 Or the young female declines to eat, like the Welsh 
 fasting girl. 
 
 The malady is not hysterical, though possessing 
 many features in common with hysteria. The 
 
The Will in Disease. 169 
 
 friends are greatly alarmed at first ; but a reaction 
 usually sets in. If the relatives continue very sym- 
 pathising, the malady will persist. Hypochondriasis 
 is another morbid state where the w,ill is in abey- 
 ance. Of insanity and the will little can be said here. 
 In many cases it seems as if the patient had but to 
 make an effort to throw off the incubus, the impres- 
 sion which predominates him or her. But then the 
 patient just cannot make that effort, any more than 
 Dickens's dying lady; and 
 
 " lies widowed 
 Of the power which bows the will." 
 
 Whether persistent attention directed to any one 
 part and long maintained ever ends in actual 
 disease of the said part may not be affirmed. It is 
 a matter to which systematic attention has not yet 
 been paid. On the contrary, many cures can only 
 be explained by the mental impression the material 
 agent employed has made ; and through the mind 
 the body is reached. " Conceit can kill and conceit 
 can cure," is an old north country saying as to the 
 effect of faith in remedies in some morbid conditions. 
 
 The will in acute diseases is in many cases most 
 
170 The Will Power. 
 
 potent. If the patient has no strong motive to live, 
 the struggle is soon over, the resistance is feeble. 
 This is a well-known matter in medical practice. 
 If a sick person really ill becomes convinced that 
 the grave is the only prospect, the desired 
 result is almost always brought about. Where 
 there exists a strong motive to live, no matter 
 whether selfish or unselfish, a successful struggle is 
 often the result. Aaron Burr, when a young man, 
 " laid aside a wasting disease like a garment " in 
 order to join Arnold on his raid against Quebec ; 
 and a very arduous undertaking it was. The ques- 
 tion of will in relation to the progress of disease 
 is constantly met with in medical practice. On the 
 other hand, given a woman of ardent temperament 
 with a sufficient motive to live; and nothing but 
 mortal disease can kill her. The same may be said 
 of the hardy old folks of the north. Joe in "Jo 
 and the Jolly Gist" (geologist) said of his father, 
 " Fadder deed ! He's none o' t' deing mak'. We's hev 
 to worry fadder when his time's come : he'll niver 
 dee of his sel' so lang as there's wark to hound yan 
 on till." The effect of disease upon the will is 
 curious. The consumptive is sanguine to the last, 
 
The Will in Disease. 171 
 
 often even when death is impending. The cancerous 
 patient meets death with a sullen defiance; the 
 pysemic patient, after the first long shivering fit, 
 maintains an attitude > of indifference. In chronic 
 disease, certain mental relations of bodily maladies 
 can be traced. Where there has been habitual 
 long depression the spirits become permanently 
 lowered ; the past can never be rased out of the 
 memory. The brain long ill-fed with blood will 
 take an habitually gloomy view of everything ; all is 
 painted in with Indian ink, and it is most difficult 
 lo dispel the gloom. When the liver is upset, the 
 brain is poisoned with toxic " liver stuffs," and 
 melancholy (literally "black bile" in Greek) is the 
 result. 
 
 " The yellow gall that in your bosom floats 
 Engenders all these melancholy thoughts," 
 
 wrote Dryden ; who perhaps had some bitter per- 
 sonal experiences on the subject. Even a very firm 
 will is taxed to bear up under such bodily conditions, • 
 and appropriate measures for bodily relief may be 
 resorted to with advantage. " Talk of champagne," 
 wrote Byron, "for clearing your thoughts ! There is 
 
172 The Will Power. 
 
 nothing like Epsom salts." The " bilious " are 
 rarely hopeful ; as a class they are a depressed race, 
 though often tenacious of purpose. Just so gout 
 creates a mental condition of irritability blended 
 with depression, as Sydenham describes. A "gouty 
 brain " is a legitimate expression ; and we can no 
 more expect a brain poisoned with gout to work 
 smoothly than we can expect an elastic tread with 
 a gouty foot. For the brain, " as the organ of 
 mind," is affected by bodily conditions. What says 
 Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., who first made clear 
 certain affections of the heart ? " The man or 
 woman with a hesitating heart is thereby unfitted 
 for sudden tasks, demands, resolves, which, when 
 the heart is firm, are considered of little moment, for 
 when the heart hesitates, the brain, which reposes 
 for its power on the blood the heart supplies to it, 
 falters with the heart, just as the gas flickers when 
 the steady pressure is taken off the main. From 
 these circumstances some persons, who once were 
 known as resolute and determined, lose those 
 qualities when they are subjected to intermittent 
 action of the heart, becoming, as their friends say, 
 uncertain and doubtful in character, becoming, as 
 
The Will in Disease. 173 
 
 they themselves feel and know, less the masters of 
 themselves, and less secure in their own work and 
 skill and power." We use the terms "stout- 
 hearted " and " faint-hearted," in secret acknowledg- 
 ment of the relations of the brain " as an organ of 
 mind " to the vigour of the heart. The Hebrew 
 priest was ordered to approach the Israelitish host 
 when going into battle. " And shall say unto them, 
 Hear, O Israel : ye approach this day unto battle 
 against your enemies : let not your hearts faint, fear 
 not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified 
 because of them." And what was good for the 
 Israehtes going into battle is good for men inclining 
 to falter when fighting the battle of life. A faint- 
 hearted person is not likely to be successful in 
 any arduous undertaking ; in one matter, at least, 
 there is a proverb to this effect : " Faint heart 
 never won fair lady." In courtship, courage is 
 requisite if the fair one be coy ; and no woman 
 in the world was ever won by a man who lacked 
 courage.-^though she may possibly consent to 
 marry him. 
 
 There are other bodily conditions than a hesi- 
 tating heart where the will is broken. Long- 
 
174 Th.e Will Power. 
 
 continued wearing battle with circumstance saps 
 the will-power of all except those who possess it 
 in its highest development. It is not every one 
 who can snatch success out of defeat, as Napoleon 
 did at Marengo. Robert Bruce found himself 
 much sustained by the spider's performance in his 
 latter efforts against the dominant English; and 
 wrenched Scotland from -the grip of the Norman- 
 English at last. When the will fails the battle is 
 lost. When a man feels he can no longer bear up, 
 or make further effort, he is worsted. 
 
 It is impossible to conclude this subject without 
 a few words about the effect of toxic agents upon 
 the will-power, especially alcohol and chloral 
 hydrate. The effect of long indulgence in alcohol 
 is to enfeeble the mind. The chronic drunkard 
 exhibits a childish range of thought in one case; 
 in another an impish malice which, fortunately, is 
 only held in check by that intense disinclination to 
 act common with chronic alcoholism. It is usually 
 not difficult to fire him to a resolution when under 
 the exhilarating effects of drink; but when the drink 
 is dead in him the will goes with it. Macaulay 
 says of the Jacobite plotters against the life of 
 
The Will in Disease. 175 
 
 William III., "It was universally remarked that 
 the malcontents looked wiser than usual when they 
 were sober, and bragged more than usual when 
 they were drunk." And of Preston, who was in 
 the Tower under sentence of death for being 
 concerned in a Jacobite plot, he says, " He was 
 informed that his fate depended on himself. The 
 struggle was long and severe. Pride, conscience, 
 party spirit were on one side, the intense love of 
 life on the other. He went during a time irresolutely 
 to and fro. He listened to his brother Jacobites, 
 and his courage rose. He listened to the agents 
 of the Government, and his heart sank within him. 
 In an evening when he had dined and. drunk his 
 claret, he feared nothing. He would die like a 
 man rather than save his neck by an act of base- 
 ness. But his temper was very different when he 
 woke the next morning, when the courage he had 
 drawn from wine and company had evaporated, 
 when he was alone with iron gates and stone walls, 
 and when the thought of the block, the axe, and 
 the sawdust rose in his mind. During some time, 
 he regularly wrote a confession every forenoon when 
 he was sober, and burned it every night when he 
 
176 The Will Power. 
 
 was merry." So it is with the chronic drunkard, 
 only in a more pronounced degree. He is always 
 bragging of what he' will do, or might have done ; 
 he is in the potential mood — might, could, should, 
 or would — and never in the indicative mood ; except 
 as to the future tense, never as to the past tense. 
 He is misleading, not always by design ; but because 
 he misleads himself first and others afteY. Irreso- 
 lution is his characteristic ; except as to selfishness 
 and his immediate wants. In order to supply 
 himself with the drink he craves for, he will sell 
 his ancestral acres, or pawn the prospects of his 
 wife and children. But as to any other prompt 
 or sustained action he is impotent. 
 
 Then as to the effects of chloral hydrate, the 
 misuse of which is, unfortunately, so very common 
 at the present time. The sleepless person secretly 
 drinks a draught of chloral, and gains the coveted 
 sleep ; but at what cost 1 The chloral puts the 
 brain to sleep partly by direct action upon it, partly 
 by reducing the amount of blood going to it; and 
 the latter condition tends to persist. Consequently 
 the person who slept on chloral finds the brain 
 next day unequal to its best efforts; the blood 
 
The Will in Disease. 177 
 
 pressure on the brain cannot be worked up as 
 before, and a horrid sense of lethargy in time 
 settles upon the individual. Less work is done, 
 but nevertheless by greater effort; the will is 
 impaired, and again impotence is stealing on. 
 These two toxic enemies of the will-power are 
 responsible for an immensity of ill around us at 
 the present day. 
 
 The will, or perhaps rather its direction, is also 
 swayed by fashions of thought. We all now stand 
 aghast at "The Prince" of Nicolas Macchiavelli ; yet 
 there is no evidence that Macchiavelli was any worse 
 than other people of his age ; indeed, he was rather 
 a favourable specimen probably. The wickedness of 
 the Romish Church in the sixteenth century has 
 been referred to before in discussing the Guise 
 qualities of the Stuarts. And no wonder when the 
 Borgias were in power ! Caesar Borgia (called 
 commonly Duke of Valentine) was the acknowledged 
 son of Pope Alexander VI. (a brutal, sensuous, low- 
 browed ruffian), and " got several fair territories 
 by the fortune of his father Pope Alexander."* It 
 
 • It is' a curious comment on these times that when 
 Borgia was elected to the papal throne the other competi- 
 
 12 
 
178 The Will Power. 
 
 gives us a curious insight into these hellish times, 
 " when murder was parricide and lust was incest," 
 as Hallam says, that the head of a celibate church 
 should have acknowledged a son. The age was 
 frenzied with wickedness and cruelty ; seemingly un- 
 conscious of its enormities. When the paternal pontiff 
 died, his son took sundry measures for the protec- 
 tion of his own interests. " The first thing he feared 
 was lest the next pope should be his enemy, and re- 
 assume all that Alexander had given him, to prevent 
 which he proposed four ways. The first was by 
 destroying the whole line of those lords whom he 
 had dispoisessed, that his Holiness might have no 
 occasion to restore them. The second was to cajole 
 the nobility in Rome, and draw them over to his 
 party, that thereby he might put an awe and restraint 
 upon the Pope. The third was, if possible, to make 
 the College (of Cardinals) his friends. The fourth 
 was to make himself so strong before the death of 
 his father as to be able to stand upon his own legs 
 and repel the first violence that should be practised 
 against him." There is not one redeeming quality, 
 
 tor who came nearest to him was a Sforza, the son of a 
 bastard adventurer o£ fortune (son of another mercenary). . 
 
The Will in Disease. 179 
 
 one solitary trait of decent feeling, of what we call 
 humanity in these schemes; nothing but naked 
 unveiled selfishness. No wonder that people of 
 that day talked of persons selling themselves to the 
 devil. This earthly fiend is the pattern Macchiavelli 
 holds up as an example to be followed by others ; a 
 ruthless monster in modern eyes. 
 
 He writes, "Upon serious examination, therefore, 
 of the whole conduct of Duke Valentine, I see 
 nothing to be reprehended ; it seems rather proper 
 to me to propose him, as I have done, as an example 
 for the imitation of all such as, by the favour of 
 fortune or. the supplies of other princes, have got 
 into the saddle, for his mind being so large, and his 
 intentions so high, he could not do otherwise, and 
 nothing could have opposed the greatness and 
 wisdom of his designs but his own infirmity and 
 the death of his father. He, therefore, who thinks 
 it necessary in the minority of his dominion to 
 secure himself against his enemies ; to gain himself 
 friends ; to overcome, whether by force or fraud ; Xa 
 make himself beloved or feared by his people ; to be 
 followed and reverenced by his soldiers; to destroy 
 and exterminate such as would do him injury; tc 
 
i8o The Will Power. 
 
 repeal and suppress old laws and introduce new ; 
 to be severe, grateful, magnanimous, liberal, cashier 
 and disband such of his army as were unfaithful, 
 and put new in their places ; manage himself so in 
 his alliances with kings and princes that all of them 
 should be either obliged to requite him, or afraid to 
 offend him ; he, I say, cannot find a fresher or better 
 model than the actions of this prince." This is the 
 gospel of Satan with a vengeance, — the calm de- 
 liberate inculcation of fiendishness. And .this was 
 the teaching against which Teutonic honesty rose in 
 revolt in the Reformation ! No wonder the Pro- 
 testants believed in their superiority in the sight of 
 God over the men who could profess to serve the 
 Christian God, and yet "were denying and blas- 
 pheming Him in every action of their lives." No 
 wonder that the Guise Stuarts, bred in such a creed, 
 should have practised as they did ; and that after 
 the struggle was over, England cut them off from 
 the throne for ever by the Act of the Protestant 
 Succession. It was a will to do evil ; not a will to 
 do good ! It was the doing evil by design. It was 
 this spirit of which Junius complained when accusing 
 the Duke of Grafton — a descendant of the Guise 
 
The Will in Disease. i8i 
 
 Stuarts — when he said, " If nature had given you an 
 understanding qualified to keep pace with the wishes 
 and principles of your heart, she would have made 
 you, perhaps, the most formidable minister that was 
 ever employed under a limited monarch to accom- 
 plish the ruin of a free people." Where this spirit 
 of antagonism to all that is human first started, it 
 seems impossible to say ; but once called into being, 
 it ran as a foul stream through generation after 
 generation for centuries. 
 
 The moral of it all is that the will may cut two 
 ways — for good or evil, towards making angels or 
 devils. Mighty as the will is, the first numeral in 
 character, the next is principle in this world. In 
 the next world, we are told, principle will come first. 
 The will may become diseased, as in the case of 
 Napoleon, in the individual ; it may become diseased 
 nationally, as was the case in Italy in the sixteenth 
 century ; and to a less, if little less, extent in Spain. 
 To profess God on our lips and deny Him in our 
 hearts is one of the most fatal bhghts that can fall on 
 character, be it individual or national. There is then 
 will in disease, and will in health : the first produc- 
 tive of evil — "Woe unto those by whom offences 
 
1 82 The Will Power. 
 
 come " ; the other the spirit which moves the 
 individual to efforts which in time enable him to 
 attain success, — often to become the benefactor of 
 his species. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 *■ I "HE perusal of the foregoing chapters will tell 
 ■*■ us the range of will, its limits, and where it 
 ends. It cannot do everything, albeit it can do 
 much. In conjunction with other qualities, it 
 occupies the position of the engine in the steam- 
 ship. Will-power is one of the greatest natural 
 endowments, — as it is one of the finest outcomes of 
 selfrculture. 
 
 The man who succeeds in climbing step by step 
 finds his will-power expanding with his energies, 
 with the demands upon him ; if not, his lirnit is 
 sooner or later reached. Whether a leader in 
 parliament, a general, or an employer of labour, the 
 will must dominate colleagues and subordinates 
 alike ; else supremacy is forbidden. There is a 
 will to rule; and when opposition or conflict has 
 to be met, "Oh, well for him whose will is strong!" 
 
1 84 Conclusion. 
 
 Strength of will is gameness — ^the power to 
 " stay." Englishmen have always prided them- 
 selves on their game qualities : whether the tenacity 
 of their bulldogs ; the endurance of their racehorses ; 
 the unflinching courage of their gamefowls ; or their 
 own indomitable purpose. 
 
 "Where there is a will there is a way.'' This 
 way may be long hidden from sight, hard to find, 
 thorny to travel, beset with quagmires or boulders, 
 long and wearisome, seemingly endless; but on it 
 the traveller goes with unshaken resolution — to 
 success at last ! 
 
 The will may not endow a man with talents or 
 capacities : but it does one very important matter, 
 it enables him to make the best, the very most of 
 his powers, — such as they are; and as such is 
 worth systematic consideration. If this little book 
 enables one single reader to plant his feet firmer 
 in the ground in fighting the battle of life, it will 
 not have been written in vain. 
 
 Finis. 
 
#1 
 
 i