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character. William Wirt says: The man who is perpetually

hesitating which of two things he will do first, will do neither.
The man who resolves, but suffers his resolution to be changed
by the first counter-suggestion of a friend who fluctuates
from opinion to opinion, from plan to plan, and veers like a
weather-cock to every point of the compass, with every breath
of caprice that blows can never accomplish anything real
or useful. It is only the man who carries into his pursuits that
great quality which Lucan ascribes to Caesar, nescia virtus state
loco; who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly, and then
executes his purpose with inflexible perseverance, undismayed
by those petty difficulties which daunt a weaker spirit that
man can advance to eminence in any line. Emerson said:
There can be no driving force, except through the conversion
of the man into his Will, making him the Will, and the Will him.
And again: The lightning which explodes and fashions planets,
maker of planets and suns is in him. On one side, elemental
order, sandstone and granite, rock-ledges, peat-bog, forest, sea
and shore; and, on the other part, thought, the spirit which
composes and decomposes nature, here they are, side by side,
god and devil, mind and matter, king and conspirator, belt and
spasm, riding peacefully together in the eye and brain of man.
Halleck says: Persons of character always have well-cultivated
Wills. Life s duties are certain to involve doing disagreeable
things, and this takes Will-Power. An unstable man can never
be a person of character. Stability is founded upon Will.
Stability demands the following of a definite, and often difficult,
consistent line of conduct, the swerving neither to the right
nor to the left. The man who is honest or punctual or diligent
by fits and starts will never occupy a high place among his
fellow men, for they will soon see that he lacks character. The
tremendous competition in life is felt less by men of character,
for there are scarcely enough of these to fill positions that
demand such men. Every avenue of life is thronged with these
uncertain creatures, whose conduct and actions are a mere
The Will