BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
American Philosopher, Statesman, Diplomatist, and Author.
b. Boston, 1706; d. Philadelphia, 1790.
AN IRON WILL
By ORISON SWETT MARDEN
AUTHOR OF "PUSHING TO THE FRONT," ETC.
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
ABNER BAYLEY
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS
New York:
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
1901
BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY.
AN IRON WILL.
TRAINING THE WILL.
"The education of the will is the object of our existence," saysEmerson.
Nor is this putting it too strongly, if we take into account the human willin its relations to the divine. This accords with the saying of J. Stuart Mill,that "a character is a completely fashioned will."
In respect to mere mundane relations, the development and discipline of one'swill-power is of supreme moment in relation to success in life. No man can everestimate the power of will. It is a part of the divine nature, all of a piecewith the power of creation. We speak of God's fiat "Fiat lux, Letlight be." Man has his fiat. The achievements of history have been thechoices, the determinations, the creations, of the human will. It was the will,quiet or pugnacious, gentle or grim, of men like Wilberforce and Garrison,Goodyear and Cyrus Field, Bismarck and Grant, that made them indomitable. Theysimply would do what they planned. Such men can no more be stopped than the suncan be, or the tide. Most men fail, not through lack of education or agreeablepersonal qualities, but from lack of dogged determination, from lack ofdauntless will.
"It is impossible," says Sharman, "to look into the conditionsunder which the battle of life is being fought, without perceiving how muchreally depends upon the extent to which the will-power is cultivated,strengthened, and made operative in right directions." Young people need togo into training for it. We live in an age of athletic meets. Those who aredetermined to have athletic will-power must take for it the kind of exercisethey need.
This is well illustrated by a report I have seen of the long race fromMarathon in the recent Olympian games, which was won by the young Greek peasant,Sotirios Louès.
A STRUGGLE IN THE RACE OF LIFE.
There had been no great parade about the t