I am sure that a young man may be very much what he
pleases. In my own case it was so. . . . Much of my happiness, and
all my prosperity in life, have resulted from the change I made at
your age. If you seriously resolve to be energetic and
industrious, depend upon it that you will for your whole life have
reason to rejoice that you were wise enough to form and to act upon
that determination." As will, considered without regard to
direction, is simply constancy, firmness, perseverance, it will be
obvious that everything depends upon right direction and motives.
Directed towards the enjoyment of the senses, the strong will may
be a demon, and the intellect merely its debased slave; but
directed towards good, the strong will is a king, and the intellect
the minister of man's highest well-being.
"Where there is a will there is a way," is an old and true saying.
He who resolves upon doing a thing, by that very resolution often
scales the barriers to it, and secures its achievement. To think
we are able, is almost to be so--to determine upon attainment is
frequently attainment itself. Thus, earnest resolution has often
seemed to have about it almost a savour of omnipotence. The
strength of Suwarrow's character lay in his power of willing, and,
like most resolute persons, he preached it up as a system.
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