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diff --git a/33952.txt b/33952.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..604d919 --- /dev/null +++ b/33952.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1261 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What You Can Do With Your Will Power, by +Russell H. Conwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What You Can Do With Your Will Power + +Author: Russell H. Conwell + +Release Date: October 2, 2010 [EBook #33952] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + What You + Can Do With Your + Will Power + + _By_ + RUSSELL H. CONWELL + + VOLUME I + + NATIONAL + EXTENSION UNIVERSITY + 597 Fifth Avenue, New York + + + + + WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR WILL POWER + + Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers + Printed in the United States of America + + + + + [Illustration: Russell H. Conwell] + + + + + PREFACE + + +Other writers have fully and accurately described _the road_, and my +only hope is that these hastily written lines will inspire the young +man or young woman to arise _and go_. + + RUSSELL H. CONWELL. + + + + + [The Author is much indebted to Mr. Merle Crowell of the + _American Magazine_ who assisted most efficiently in the + preparation of the facts herein contained.] + + + + + WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR WILL POWER + + + + + Success has no secret-- + + I + + +Success has no secret. Her voice is forever ringing through the +market-place and crying in the wilderness, and the burden of her cry +is one word--WILL. Any normal young man who hears and heeds that cry +is equipped fully to climb to the very heights of life. + +The message I would like to leave with the young men and women of +America is a message I have been trying humbly to deliver from lecture +platform and pulpit for more than fifty years. It is a message the +accuracy of which has been affirmed and reaffirmed in thousands of lives +whose progress I have been privileged to watch. And the message is this: +Your future stands before you like a block of unwrought marble. You can +work it into what you will. Neither heredity, nor environment, nor any +obstacles superimposed by man can keep you from marching straight +through to success, provided you are guided by a firm, driving +determination and have normal health and intelligence. + +Determination is the battery that commands every road of life. It is the +armor against which the missiles of adversity rattle harmlessly. If +there is one thing I have tried peculiarly to do through these years it +is to indent in the minds of the youth of America the living fact that +when they give WILL the reins and say "DRIVE" they are headed toward the +heights. + +The institution out of which Temple University, of Philadelphia, grew +was founded thirty years ago expressly to furnish opportunities for +higher education to poor boys and girls who are willing to work for it. +I have seen ninety thousand students enter its doors. A very large +percentage of these came to Philadelphia without money, but firmly +determined to get an education. I have never known one of them to go +back defeated. Determination has the properties of a powerful acid; all +shackles melt before it. + +Conversely, lack of will power is the readiest weapon in the arsenal of +failure. The most hopeless proposition in the world is the fellow who +thinks that success is a door through which he will sometime stumble if +he roams around long enough. Some men seem to expect ravens to feed +them, the cruse of oil to remain inexhaustible, the fish to come right +up over the side of the boat at meal-time. They believe that life is a +series of miracles. They loaf about and trust in their lucky star, and +boldly declare that the world owes them a living. + +As a matter of fact the world owes a man nothing that he does not earn. +In this life a man gets about what he is worth, and he must render an +equivalent for what is given him. There is no such thing as inactive +success. + +My mind is running back over the stories of thousands of boys and girls +I have known and known about, who have faced every sort of a handicap +and have won out solely by will and perseverance in working with all the +power that God had given them. It is now nearly thirty years since a +young English boy came into my office. He wanted to attend the evening +classes at our university to learn oratory. + +"Why don't you go into the law?" I asked him. + +"I'm too poor! I haven't a chance!" he replied, shaking his head sadly. + +I turned on him sharply. "Of course you haven't a chance," I exclaimed, +"if you don't make up your mind to it!" + +The next night he knocked at my door again. His face was radiant and +there was a light of determination in his eyes. + +"I have decided to become a lawyer," he said, and I knew from the ring +of his voice that he meant it. + +Many times after he became mayor of Philadelphia he must have looked +back on that decision as the turning-point in his life. + +I am thinking of a young Connecticut farm lad who was given up by his +teachers as too weak-minded to learn. He left school when he was seven +years old and toiled on his father's farm until he was twenty-one. Then +something turned his mind toward the origin and development of the +animal kingdom. He began to read works on zoology, and, in order to +enlarge his capacity for understanding, went back to school and picked +up where he left off fourteen years before. Somebody said to him, "You +can get to the top _if you will_!" + +He grasped the hope and nurtured it, until at last it completely +possessed him. He entered college at twenty-eight and worked his way +through with the assistance that we were able to furnish him. To-day he +is a respected professor of zoology in an Ohio college. + +Such illustrations I could multiply indefinitely. Of all the boys whom I +have tried to help through college I cannot think of a single one who +has failed for any other reason than ill health. But of course I have +never helped any one who was not first helping himself. As soon as a man +determines the goal toward which he is marching, he is in a strategic +position to see and seize everything that will contribute toward that +end. + +Whenever a young man tells me that if he "had his way" he would be a +lawyer, or an engineer, or what not, I always reply: + +"You can be what you will, provided that it is something the world will +be demanding ten years hence." + +This brings to my mind a certain stipulation which the ambition of youth +must recognize. You must invest yourself or your money in a _known +demand_. You must select an occupation that is fitted to your own +special genius and to some actual want of the people. Choose as early as +possible what your life-work will be. Then you can be continually +equipping yourself by reading and observing to a purpose. There are many +things which the average boy or girl learns in school that could be +learned outside just as well. + +Almost any man should be able to become wealthy in this land of opulent +opportunity. There are some people who think that to be pious they must +be very poor and very dirty. They are wrong. Not money, but the _love_ +of money, is the root of all evil. Money in itself is a dynamic force +for helping humanity. + +In my lectures I have borne heavily on the fact that we are all walking +over acres of diamonds and mines of gold. There are people who think +that their fortune lies in some far country. It is much more likely to +lie right in their own back yards or on their front door-step, hidden +from their unseeing eye. Most of our millionaires discovered their +fortunes by simply looking around them. + +Recently I have been investigating the lives of four thousand and +forty-three American millionaires. All but twenty of them started life +as poor boys, and all but forty of them have contributed largely to +their communities, and divided fairly with their employees as they went +along. But, alas, not one rich man's son out of seventeen dies rich. + +But if a man has dilly-dallied through a certain space of wasted years, +can he then develop the character--the motor force--to drive him to +success? Why, my friend, will power cannot only be developed, but it is +often dry powder which needs only a match. Very frequently I think of +the life of Abraham Lincoln--that wonderful man! and I am thankful that +I was permitted to meet him. Yet Abraham Lincoln developed the splendid +sinews of his will after he was twenty-one. Before that he was just a +roving, good-natured sort of a chap. Always have I regretted that I +failed to ask him what special circumstance broke the chrysalis of his +life and loosened the wings of his will. + +Many years ago some of the students of Temple University held a meeting +in a building opposite the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel. As they were +leaving the building they noticed a foreigner selling peanuts on the +opposite curb. While buying peanuts they got to talking with the +fellow, and told him that any one could obtain an education if he was +willing to work for it. Eagerly the poor fellow drank up all the +information he could get. He enrolled at Temple University and worked +his way through, starting with the elementary studies. He is to-day an +eminent practising physician in the national capital. + +Often I think of an office clerk who reached a decision that the +ambitions which were stirring in his soul could be realized if he could +only get an education. He attended our evening classes and was graduated +with a B.S. degree. He is now the millionaire head of one of the largest +brokerage houses in the country. + +"Where there's a will there's a way!" But one needs to use a little +common sense about selecting the way. A general may determine to win a +victory, but if he hurls his troops across an open field straight into +the leaden sweep of the enemy's artillery he invites disaster and +defeat. The best general lays his plans carefully, and advances his +troops in the way that will best conserve their strength and numbers. So +must a man plan his campaign of life. + +No man has a right, either for himself or for others, to be at work in a +factory, or a store, or anywhere else, unless he would work there from +choice--money or no money--if he had the necessities of life. + +"As a man thinks, so he is," says the writer of Proverbs; but as a man +adjusts himself, so really is he, after all. One great trouble with many +individuals is that they are made up of all sorts of machinery that is +not adjusted, that is out of place--no belts on the wheels, no fire +under the boiler, hence no steam to move the mechanism. + +Some folk never take the trouble to size themselves up--to find out +what they are fitted to do--and then wonder why they remain way down at +the bottom of the heap. I remember a young woman who told me that she +did not believe she could ever be of any particular use in the world. I +mentioned a dozen things that she ought to be able to do. + +"If you only knew yourself," I said, "you would set yourself to writing. +You ought to be an author." + +She shook her head and smiled, as if she thought I was making fun of +her. Later, force of circumstances drove her to take up the pen. And +when she came to me and told me that she was making three thousand +dollars a year in literary work, and was soon to go higher, I thought +back to the time when she was a poor girl making three dollars a week +when she failed accurately to estimate herself. + + + + + There is a deplorable tendency-- + + II + + +There is a deplorable tendency among many people to wait for a +particularly favorable opportunity to declare themselves in the battle +of life. Some people pause for the rap of opportunity when opportunity +has been playing a tattoo on their resonant skulls for years. + +Hardly a single great invention has been placed on the market without a +number of men putting forth the claim that they had the idea first--and +in most cases they proved the fact. But while they were sitting down and +dreaming, or trying to bring the device to a greater perfection, a man +with initiative rose up and acted. The telegraph, telephone, +sewing-machine, air-brake, mowing-machine, wireless, and +linotype-machine are only a few illustrations. + +The most wonderful idea is quite valueless until it is put into +practical operation. The Government rewards the man who first gets a +patent or first puts his invention into practical use--and the world +does likewise. Thus the dreamer must always lag behind the door. + +True will power also predicates concentration. I shall never forget the +time I went to see President Lincoln to ask him to spare the life of one +of my soldiers who was sentenced to be shot. As I walked toward the door +of his office I felt a greater fear than I had ever known when the +shells were bursting all about us at Antietam. Finally I mustered up +courage to knock on the door. I heard a voice inside yell: + +"Come in and sit down!" + +The man at the table did not look up as I entered; he was busy over a +bunch of papers. I sat down at the edge of a chair and wished I were in +Peking or Patagonia. He never looked up until he had quite finished with +the papers. Then he turned to me and said: + +"I am a very busy man and have only a few minutes to spare. Tell me in +the fewest words what it is you want." + +As soon as I mentioned the case he said: + +"I have heard all about it, and you do not need to tell me any more. Mr. +Stanton was talking to me about that only a few days ago. You can go to +the hotel and rest assured that the President never did sign an order to +shoot a boy under twenty, and never will. You may tell his mother that." +Then, after a short conversation, he took hold of another bunch of +papers and said, decidedly, "Good morning!" + +Lincoln, one of the greatest men of the world, owed his success largely +to one rule: whatsoever he had to do at all he put his whole mind into, +and held it all there until the task was all done. That makes men great +almost anywhere. + +Too many people are satisfied if they have done a thing "well enough." +That is a fatal complacency. "Well enough" has cursed souls. "Well +enough" has wrecked enterprises. "Well enough" has destroyed nations. If +perfection in a task can possibly be reached, nothing short of +perfection is "well enough." Governor Talbot of Massachusetts got his +high office because General Swift made a happy application of the truth +in saying to the convention, "I nominate for Governor of this state a +man who, when he was a farmer's boy, hoed to the end of the row." That +saying became a campaign slogan all up and down the state. "He hoed to +the end of the row! He hoed to the end of the row!" When the people +discovered that this was one of the characteristics of the man, they +elected him by one of the greatest majorities ever given a Governor in +Massachusetts. + +Yet we must bear in mind that there is such a thing as overdoing +anything. Young people should draw a line between study that secures +wisdom and study that breaks down the mind; between exercise that is +healthful and exercise that is injurious; between a conscientiousness +that is pure and divine and a conscientiousness that is over-morbid and +insane; between economy that is careful and economy that is stingy; +between industry that is a reasonable use of their powers and industry +that is an over-use of their powers, leading only to destruction. + +The best ordered mind is one that can grasp the problems that gather +around a man constantly and work them out to a logical conclusion; that +sees quickly what anything means, whether it be an exhibition of goods, +a juxtaposition of events, or the suggestions of literature. + +A man is made up largely of his daily observations. School training +serves to fit and discipline him so that he may read rightly the lesson +of the things he sees around him. Men have made mighty fortunes by just +using their eyes. + +Several years ago I took dinner in New York with one of the great +millionaires of that city. In the course of our talk he told me +something about his boyhood days--how, with hardly a penny in his +pocket, he slung a pack on his back and set out along the Erie Canal, +looking for a job. At last he got one. He was paid three dollars a week +to make soft soap for the laborers to use at the locks in washing their +hands. One can hardly imagine a more humble occupation; but this boy +kept his eyes open. He saw the disadvantages of soft soap, and set to +work to make a hard substitute for it. Finally he succeeded, and his +success brought him many, many millions. + +Every person is designed for a definite work in life, fitted for a +particular sphere. Before God he has a right to that sphere. If you are +an excellent housekeeper you should not be running a loom, and it is +your duty to prepare yourself to enter at the first opportunity the +sphere for which you are fitted. + +George W. Childs, who owned the Philadelphia _Ledger_, once blacked +boots and sold newspapers in front of the _Ledger_ building. He told me +how he used to look at that building and declare over and over to +himself that some day he would own the great newspaper establishment +that it housed. When he mentioned his ambition to his associates they +laughed at him. But Childs had indomitable grit, and ultimately he did +come to own that newspaper establishment, one of the finest in the +country. + +Another thing very necessary to the pursuit of success is the proper +employment of waiting moments. How do you use your waiting time for +meals, for trains, for business? I suppose that if the average +individual were to employ wisely these intervals in which he whistles +and twiddles his thumbs he would soon accumulate enough knowledge to +quite make over his life. + +I went through the United States Senate in 1867 and asked each of the +members how he got his early education. I found that an extremely large +percentage of them had simply properly applied their waiting moments. +Even Charles Sumner, a university graduate, told me that he learned more +from the books he read outside of college than from those he had studied +within. General Burnside, who was then a Senator, said that he had +always had a book beside him in the shop where he worked. + +Before leaving the subject of the power of the will, there is one thing +I would like to say: a true will must have a decent regard for the +happiness of others. Do not get so wrapped up in your own mission that +you forget to be kind to other people, for you have not fulfilled every +duty unless you have fulfilled the duty of being pleasant. Enemies and +ignorance are the two most expensive things in a man's life. I never +make unnecessary enemies--they cost too much. + +Every one has within himself the tools necessary to carve out success. +Consecrate yourself to some definite mission in life, and let it be a +mission that will benefit the world as well as yourself. Remember that +nothing can withstand the sweep of a determined will--unless it happens +to be another will equally as determined. Keep clean, fight hard, pick +your openings judiciously, and have your eyes forever fixed on the +heights toward which you are headed. If there be any other formula for +success, I do not know it. + + + + + The biography of that great patriot-- + + III + + +The biography of that great patriot and statesman, Daniel Manin of +Venice, Italy, contains a very romantic example of the possibilities of +will force. He was born in a poor quarter of the city; his parents were +without rank or money. Venice in 1805 was under the Austrian rule and +was sharply divided into aristocratic and peasant classes. He was soon +deserted by his father and left to the support of his mother. He was a +dull boy, and could not keep along with other boys in the church +schools; his mind labored as slowly as did the childhood intellects of +many of the greatest men of history. Daniel seemed destined to earn his +living digging mud out of the canals, if he supported himself at all. No +American boy can be handicapped like that. But the children who learn +slowly learn surely, and history, which is but the biography of great +men, mentions again and again the fact that the great characters began +to be able to acquire learning late in life. Napoleon and Wellington +were both dull boys, and Lincoln often said that he was a dunce through +his early years. Daniel Manin seems to have been utterly unable to learn +from books until he was eight or ten years old. But his latent will +power was suddenly developed to an unexpected degree when he was quite a +youth. Kossuth, who was a personal friend of Manin, said in an address +in New York that the American Republic was responsible for the awakening +of Manin, and through him had made Italy free. + +It appears that an American sea-captain, while discharging a cargo in +Venice, employed Daniel as an errand-boy, and when the ship sailed the +captain made Daniel a present of a gilt-edged copy of the lives of +George Washington and John Hancock in one volume. The captain, who had +greatly endeared himself to Daniel, made the boy promise solemnly that +he would learn to read the book. But Daniel was utterly ignorant of the +English language in print and had learned only a few phrases from the +captain. The gift of that book made Venice a republic, led to the +adoption of sections of the United States Constitution by that state and +carried the principles on into the constitution of United Italy. That +book awakened the sleeping will power of the industrious dull boy. Even +his mother protested against his waste of time in trying to read English +when he was unable to conquer the primers in Italian. But he secured a +phrase-book and a grammar, and paid for them in hard labor. With those +crude implements, without a teacher, he determined to read that book. +Only one friend, a young priest in St. Mark's Cathedral, gave him any +word or look of encouragement. But his candle burned late, and the +returning daylight took him to his book to study until time for +breakfast. Then came the daily task as a messenger, or gondolier. Some +weeks or months after he began his seemingly foolish problem he rushed +into his mother's room at night, excited and noisy, shouting to her: "I +can read that book! I can read that book!" There comes a moment in the +life of every successful student of a foreign language when he suddenly +awakens to the consciousness that he can think in that language. From +that point on the work is always easy. It must have been a similar +psychological change which came into Daniel's intellect. So sudden was +it, so amazing the change, that the priest reported the case as a +miracle, and the little circle of the poor people who knew the boy +looked on him with awe. Consul-General Sparks, who represented the +United States at Venice in 1848, wrote that "Manin often mentions his +intellectual new birth, and his success in reading the life of +Washington in English spurs him on in the difficult and dangerous +undertakings connected with the efforts of Venice to get free." + +When Daniel began to appreciate his ability to determine to do and to +persevere, his ambition and hope brought to him larger views of life. He +resolved to learn in other ways. He took up school books and mastered +them thoroughly, and he became known as "a boy who works slowly, but +what he does at all he does well." He soon found helpers among kind +gentlemen and secured employment in a bookstall. The accounts of his +persistence and his achievements are as thrilling and as fascinating as +any finished romance. He managed to get a college education, recognized +by Padua University; he studied law and was admitted to the bar when he +was twenty-two years of age. The Austrian judges would not admit him to +their courts, and it is said he visited his law-office regularly and +daily for nearly two years before he had a paying client. But his strong +will, shown in his perseverance in the presence of starvation, won the +respect and love of the daughter of a wealthy patrician. They had been +married but a short time when the Austrians confiscated the property of +his father-in-law because of suspicions circulated concerning his secret +connection with the "Americani." That patriotic secret society was +called the "Carbonari" by the Austrians, and Manin became the leading +spirit in the Venetian branch. His will seemed resistless. He refused +the Presidency in 1832, when revolution shook the tyrannies of all +Europe and Venice fell back under Austrian control. But in 1848 he was +almost unanimously elected President of the "American Republic of +Venice"; and in his second proclamation before the great siege began he +issued a call for the election, using, as Consul-General Sparks records, +the following language (as translated): "and until the election is held +and the officers installed the following sections of the Constitution of +the United States of America shall be the law of the City." He was +determined to secure an "American republic" in Italy. He lived to see it +in Venice. Statues of Daniel Manin are seen now in all the great cities +of Italy; and when the statue was dedicated at Venice and a city park +square named after him, he was called the father of the new kingdom of +Italy. General Garibaldi said that when Manin made a draft of the +Constitution he proposed for United Italy, he quoted the American +Declaration of Independence. The general also said that Manin insisted +the Government of Italy should be like the American Republic, and that +it was difficult to convince Manin that a king--so called--could be as +limited as a President. Even Mazzini, the extremist, and both Cavour and +Gavazzi finally came to accept Manin's demands for freedom and equality +as they were set forth in the Constitution of the American Republic. +Manin did not live to see the final union, nor to see his son a general +in the Italian army, but his vigorous will gave a momentum to freedom in +Italy which is still pressing the people on to his noblest ideals. "What +man has done man can do," and what Manin did can be done again in other +achievements. + +The normal reader never was anxious that the North Pole should be +located, and he does not care now whether it has been discovered. +Mathematicians and geographers may find delight in the solution of some +abstract problem, but the busy citizen who seizes his paper with haste +to see if Peary has found the North Pole has no interest in the spot. +He would not visit the place if some authority would give him a thousand +acres or present him with a dozen ice-floes. What the reader desires is +to learn how the will power in those discoverers worked out through +hair-breadth escapes, long winters, and starvation's pangs. It is a +great game, and the world is a grand stand. The man with the strongest +will attracts the admiration of the world. All the world which loves a +lover also admires a hero, and a hero is always a man of forceful will. +When we read of Louis Joliet and James Marquette in their terrible +experience tracing the Mississippi River--Indians as savage as wild +beasts, marshes, lakes, forests, mountains, burdens, illness, wounds, +exhaustion, seeming failures--all testify to their sublime strength of +purpose. Peter Lemoyne, Jonathan Carver, Captain Lewis, Lieutenant +Clark, Montgomery Pike, General Fremont, Elisha Kent Kane, Charles +Francis Hall, David Livingstone, Captain Cook, Paul Du Chaillu, and +Henry M. Stanley carved their names deep in walls of history when +differing from other men only in the cultivation of a mighty will. + +Mary Lyon, the heroine of Mount Holyoke, used to quote frequently the +saying of Doctor Beecher that he once had "a machine admirably +contrived, admirably adjusted, but it had one fault; _it wouldn't go!_" +while Catherine Beecher would retort that Miss Lyon had "too much go for +so small a machine." But what a monumental triumph was the dedication of +the first building of Mount Holyoke College at South Hadley, +Massachusetts. Mrs. Deacon Porter wrote to Henry Ward Beecher: "I wish +you could have seen Miss Lyon's face as the procession moved up the +street. It was indeed the face of an angel." From that immortal hour +when that little woman, peeling potatoes as her brother's housekeeper +at Buckland, Massachusetts, suddenly determined to start a movement for +the higher education of young women, she had written, had traveled, had +begged, had given all her inheritance, had visited colleges and schools, +going incessantly, working, praying, appealing, until the material +embodiment of her martyr sacrifices was opened to women. All women in +all countries are greatly in her debt. Men feel grateful for what the +higher education of women has done for men. One cannot now walk over the +embowered campus of Mount Holyoke College without meditating on what a +forceful will of a frail woman, set toward the beautiful and good, can +do within the severest limitations. Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, +and the thirty-five other colleges for women in Western and Southern +states are the children of Mount Holyoke. One lone woman, one single +will, a large heart! God sees her and orders His forces to aid her! + +Richard Arkwright, Stephenson, and Edison in the pursuit of an +invention, with stern faces and clenched teeth, work far into the +morning. John Wesley, Whitfield, and the list of religious reformers +from St. Augustine to Dwight L. Moody have been men of dynamic +confidence in the triumph of a great idea. Neal Dow, Elizabeth Fry, and +their disciples, urging on the cause of temperance with that motive +force which they discovered in themselves, aroused the people wherever +they went to assistance or to opposition. Fulton said, "I will build a +steamboat." Cyrus Field said, "I will lay a telegraph cable to Europe." +Sir Christopher Wren, imitating the builders of St. Peter's, said, "I +will build the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral." General Washington said, +"I will venture all on final victory," and General Grant said, "I will +fight it out on this line." When Abraham Lincoln gave his eloquent +tribute to Henry Clay in 1852 he said, "Henry Clay's example teaches us +that one can scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he can acquire +sufficient education to get through the world respectably." To such men +log cabins were universities. Daniel Webster decided, at the end of his +day's work plowing a stony field in the New Hampshire hills, that he +would be a statesman. Thomas H. Benton, when nearly all men supposed the +wilderness unconquerable, decided to push the Republic west to the Rocky +Mountains. Salmon P. Chase, from the time he ran the ferryboat on the +Cuyahoga River, kept in his pocket-book a motto, "Where there is a will +there is a way." Charles Sumner had a disagreeable habit of talking +about himself and boasting of his learning. He was frankly told one day +by James T. Fields that it was a "weakening trait." Mr. Sumner thanked +Mr. Fields and told him that he had determined "to discontinue such +foolish talk." "He fought himself," wrote Mr. Fields, "and he +conquered." James G. Blaine, in college at Washington, Pennsylvania, saw +a student who had been too devoted to football weeping over his failure +to pass an examination. Warned by the failure of this student, James +told his mother that he would not play another game of football while he +was in college. He kept his resolution unbroken throughout the course. +When James A. Garfield was earning his tuition as a bell-ringer at Hiram +College he resolved that the first stroke of the bell should be exactly +on the minute throughout the year. The president of the college stated +that the people in the village set their clocks by that bell, and not +once in the year was it one minute ahead or behind time. Grover +Cleveland at eighteen was drifting about from one job to another, and +men prophesied that he would be a disgrace to his "over-pious" father, +who was a preacher. Mr. Cleveland said in a speech that, "like Martin +Luther, I was stopped in my course by a stroke of lightning." It does +not appear to what he referred, but it does appear that he decided +firmly that he would choose some calling and stick to it. He decided +upon the law, and was so fixed in his determination to know law that he +stayed in his tutor's office three years after he had been admitted to +the bar, and there continued persistently in his studies. + + + + + In a small town in Western Massachusetts-- + + IV + + +In a small town in western Massachusetts, forty years ago, a young, pale +youth was acting as cashier of the savings bank. He was dyspeptic, +acutely nervous, and often ill-natured. One day several large factories +closed their doors, and the corporations to whom the bank had loaned +money gave notice of bankruptcy. The president of the bank was in Europe +and the people did not know that the bank was a loser by the failure. +The cashier was almost overcome by the sense of danger, for he could not +meet a run on the bank with the funds he had on hand. He entered the +bank after a sleepless night, fearing that the people might in some way +learn of the bank's responsibility. He was sleepy, faint, discouraged. +An old farmer came in to get a small check cashed, and the glum cashier +did not answer the farmer's usual salutation. His face was cloudy, his +eyes bloodshot, and his whole manner irritating. He counted out the +money and threw it at the farmer. The old man counted his money +carefully and then called out to the cashier: "What's the matter? Is +your bank going to fail?" When the farmer had left the bank the young +cashier could see that his manner was letting out that which he wished +to conceal. He then paced up and down the bank and fought it all out +with himself. He determined he would be cheerful, brave, and strong. He +forced himself to smile, and soon was able to laugh at himself for +presenting such a ridiculous appearance. He met the next customer with a +hearty greeting of good cheer. All the forenoon he grew stronger in his +determination to let nothing move him to gloom again. About noon the +daily Boston paper came and announced the possible failure of that bank. +Almost instantly the news flew about town, and a wild mob assailed the +bank, screaming for their money. But the cheerful cashier met them with +a smile and made fun of their excitement. The eighteenth man demanding +his money was an old German, who, seeing the cashier count out the money +so coolly and cheerfully, drew back his bank-book and said: "If you have +the money, we don't want it now! But we thought you didn't have it!" +That suggestion made the crowd laugh, and in half an hour the crowd had +left and those who had drawn their money in many cases asked the cashier +to take it back. The cashier now is a most successful manufacturer and +railroad director, stout-hearted and cheerful. He often refers to the +fight he had that morning with his "insignificant, flabby little self." + +To appreciate one's power at command is the first consideration. A man +from Cooperstown, New York, visited St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota, in the +early fifties of the last century and laughed loud and long at the +ridiculous little mill which turned out a few bags of flour and sawed a +few thousand feet of lumber. It was indeed ludicrous. He could think of +no comparison except an elephant drawing a baby's tin toy. His laughter +led to a heated discussion and investigation. An army officer at Fort +Snelling, who was a civil engineer, was asked to make an estimate of the +Mississippi River's horse-power at St. Anthony Falls. His report was +beyond the civilian's belief. He said there was power enough to turn the +wheels to grind out ten thousand barrels of flour a day and to cut logs +into millions of square feet of board every hour. The estimate was below +the facts, but was not accepted for ten years. Then was constructed the +strong dam which built up the great city of Minneapolis and represents +the finest and most vigorous civilization of our age. Nevertheless, +there still runs to waste ten thousand horse-power. In the first +paper-mill erected at South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, the horse-power +used was less than one hundred, yet an engineer employed by Mr. Chapin, +of Springfield, to determine the possible power of the Connecticut River +at that point reported it so great that unbelief in his figures +postponed for a long time all the proposed enterprises. But one poor +man, determined "to do something about it," promoted a system of canals +which now so utilizes the water that a large city, manufacturing +annually products worth many millions, draws from it comfort and riches. +Massive as are the present works at Holyoke, regret is often expressed +that so much of the water-power still goes over the mighty dam and +ridicules the smallness of the faith of those who tried to harness it. + +Such is the intellectual force in a young person's mind. It is +reasonable to conclude that no mind ever did its very best, and that no +will power was ever exerted continuously to its greatest capacity. But +the first essential in the making of noble character is to gain a full +appreciation of the latent or unused force which each individual +possesses. When one without foolish egotism realizes how much can be +done with his wasting energies, then he must carefully consider to what +object he will turn his power. Great wills are often wasted on unworthy +objects, and the strong current of the mind, which could be applied to +the making of world-enriching machinery, is used to manufacture some +unsalable toy. The mind is often compared to an electric dynamo. The +figure is accurate. It is an automatic, self-charging battery which, +when applied to worthy occupation or to a high purpose, distributes +happiness, progress, and intelligence to mankind, and as a natural +consequence brings riches and honor to the industrious possessor. + +Forty years ago there was on the lips of nearly every teacher and father +a fascinating story of a Massachusetts boy whose history illustrates +forcibly the "power to will" which is latent in us all. I need not state +the details of the life, as it is only the illustration which we need +here. + +A young fellow sat on a barrel at the door of a country grocery-store in +a small village not far from Boston. He was the son of an industrious +mechanic who had opened a small shop for making and repairing farm +utensils, such as rakes, hoes, and shovels. But the son, encouraged by +an indulgent mother, would not work. He gave way to cards, drink, and +bad company. He would not go to school, and was a continual source of +alarm to his parents, and he became the talk of the neighbors. He either +was ill with a cough or pretended to fear consumption; the doctor's +advice to set him at work in the open air was not enforced by his +anxious mother. He was a fair sample of the many thousand young men seen +now about the country stores and taverns. He had, however, the unusual +disadvantage of having his board and clothing furnished to him without +earning them. If he exercised his will, it was to turn it against +himself in a determined self-indulgence. I heard him once refer to those +days and quote Virgil in saying that "the descent to Avernus is easy." + +One evening with his hands in his pockets he strolled up to the store +and post-office to meet some other young men for a game of checkers. +Under the only street lamp near the store a patent-medicine peddler had +opened one side of his covered wagon and was advertising his "universal +cure." The boy--then about nineteen years old--listened listlessly to +the songs and stories, but was not interested enough to learn what was +offered for sale. The vender of medicines held up a chain composed of +several seemingly solid rings which he skilfully took apart. He then +offered a dollar to any one who would put the rings together as they +were before. The puzzle caught the eye and interest of the careless boy; +as the rings were passed from one to another they came to him. He looked +them over and said, "I can't do it," and passed them on. The Yankee +peddler yelled at the boy, "If you talk like that you will land in the +poorhouse!" The young fellow was cut to the heart with the short rebuke. +He was inclined to answer hotly, but lacked the courage. After the +other boys had had their chance to see the rings, he asked to examine +them again; but he still saw no way to cut or open the solid steel and +contemptuously threw them at the peddler and shouted, "You're fooling; +that can't be done!" The smiling vender rolled the rings into a chain in +an instant and, throwing it to the boy, said, sarcastically: "Take it +home to your mother; she can do it!" The young fellow, ashamed, angry, +and crushed, caught the chain and crept out of the crowd and went home, +entering his room by the back stairs. He hated the peddler with a +murderous passion, but despised himself and must have wept great tears +far into the night. The next morning he sat on the side of his bed, +gazing at the chain, long after his father had gone to work. That was a +terrible battle! All who succeed must fight that battle to victory at +some time, or life is a failure. He who conquers himself can conquer +other men. He who does not rule himself cannot control other people. For +the first time that boy was conscious of his lack of WILL. He was +painfully ashamed. He could not again meet the boys, or the one girl who +was at the post-office, unless he solved that riddle. It was far worse +to him than the riddles of the ancient oracles or the questions of +Samson had been to the ancients. No victory so glorious to any man as +that when he rises over his dead self and can shout with unwavering +confidence, I WILL. That young man's battle was furious and a strain on +body and soul; he kept saying over and over again, "I will solve that +riddle." He was sorely tempted by hunger, as he would not stop to eat. +He determined to win out alone, and did not ask aid even of his mother. +That night the rings fell apart in his hands and rolled on the floor. +He had won! Life has few joys like that hour of victory. The rings had +little value as pieces of steel, but his triumph over self was worth +millions to him, and worth a thousand millions to his country. + +The next morning his parents were surprised to see him the first one at +the breakfast-table. He told of his solution of the puzzle, and said to +his astonished but delighted parents that he had loafed around long +enough and that he had determined to take hold and do things. He asked +for an especially hard place in the shop, and entered that week on a +noble, triumphant career, having few equals save those of like +experience. His health became robust, his work became profitable, new +business ideas were developed, and in a few years he controlled the +inside business and far distanced all outside competitors. He said to +his wife, "I will have a million dollars, and every dollar shall be a +clean and honest dollar." In those days a million looked like a mountain +of gold. But he secured the million and steadily raised the pay of his +workmen. He became the sheik of the town, the father and adviser of +every local enterprise. He was sent to Congress by a nearly unanimous +vote. For eleven years he was a safe counselor of the administration at +Washington and was a close friend and trusted supporter of President +Lincoln. + +One day in 1864 the Federal armies had been defeated by the Confederate +forces and gloom shadowed the faces of the people. President Lincoln had +a sleepless night--it looked like defeat and disunion. The danger was +greatly increased by the abandonment of the scheme to hold California to +the Union by building a railroad through the mountainous wilderness of +the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. The chief engineer who surveyed +the route said that it could not be done because of the great cost. +Three great financiers had been consulted and refused to undertake the +hopeless task. The great Massachusetts Senator told Mr. Lincoln that +there was just one man who could do that gigantic feat. The Senator said +to Lincoln: "If that Congressman makes up his mind to do it, and it is +left to him, he will do it. He is a careful man, but he has a will which +seems to be irresistible." President Lincoln sent for the Congressman +and said: "A railroad to California now will be more than an army, and +it will be an army--in the saving of the Union. Will you build it?" The +Congressman asked for three weeks to think. Before the end of that time +he asked the Secretary of War to take his card to President Lincoln, +then in Philadelphia; on the card was written, "I will." What a +startlingly fascinating story from real life is the history of that +mighty undertaking. Now, when the traveler passes the highest point on +that transcontinental railroad, 8,550 feet above the sea at Sherman, +Wyoming, and lifts his hat before the monument erected to the memory of +that civil nobleman and hero, he is paying his respect to the +self-giving heart and mighty brain of the boy who conquered _the three +links_. + +It may not be necessary to multiply illustrations of this vital +question, but no one who lived in the journalistic circles of Washington +subsequent to the Civil War can forget the power and fame of that +feminine literary genius who, as the Washington correspondent of the +_New York Independent_, wrote such brilliant letters. The fact that she +bore the same name as the Congressman we have mentioned, though no +relative of his, does not account for this reference to her. She was +nearly thirty-three years old when a divorce and the breaking up of her +home left her poor, ill, and under the cloud of undeserved disgrace. Her +acquaintances predicted obscurity, daily toil with her hands, and a life +of lonely sorrow. Poor victim of sad circumstances! She had but little +education, and had been too full of cares to read the books of the day. +Her start in the profession which she later so gracefully and forcibly +adorned was the foremost topic in corners and cloakrooms at her largely +attended literary receptions in Washington. + +She had been told by those who loved her that a divorced woman would be +shunned by all cultured women and be the butt of ridicule for +fashionable men; and that as she must earn a living she should sew or +embroider or act as a nurse. She certainly was too weak to wash clothes +or care for a kitchen. But within her soul there was that yearning to do +something worth while which seems given to almost every woman. Few women +reach old age without feeling that somehow the great object of living +has not been attained. The ambitions to which a man can give free wings, +a woman must suppress or hide in deference to custom or competition. +As yet she has seldom under our civilization seemed to do her best or +accomplish the one great ideal of her heart and intellect. While she has +the same God-given impulses, visions, and sense of power, she builds no +cathedrals, spans no rivers, digs no mines, founds no nations, builds +no steamships, and seldom appears in painting, sculpture, banking, or +oratory. She is conscious of the native talent, sees the ideals, but +must hide them until it is too late. But this woman from the interior +of New York State was an exception; like Charlotte Bronte, she said, +"I will write." Like the same great author, she had her rebuffs and +returned manuscripts, and all the more since at that time women were +unknown in the newspaper business. But her invariable answer to critics +and discouraged friends was, "I will." When in 1883 she said, "I will," +to the great editor who became her second husband, the President of the +United States wrote a personal letter to say that, while he wished her +joy, he could but admit that it would be a "distinct loss to humanity +to have such a brilliant genius hidden by marriage." + +In an automobile ride from Lake Champlain to New York I saw the city +of Burlington, Vermont, with its university, where Barnes had said, +"I will." At St. Johnsbury the whole city advertises Fairbanks, who +said, "I will." At Brattleboro the hum of industry ever repeats the name +of the boy Esty, who said, "I will"; at Holyoke, the powerful canals +seem to reflect the faces of Chase and Whitney, who, when poor men, +said, "I will." At Springfield the signs on the stores, banks, and +factories suggest the young Chapin, who made the city prosperous with +his "I will." At New Haven Whitney's determination stands out in great +streets and university buildings. + +Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, Raleigh, Niagara, +Pittsburg and a hundred American cities like them are the outcome of +ideas with wills behind them in the heads of common men. If every man +had in the last generation done all that it was in his power to do, what +sublime things would stand before us now in architecture, commerce, art, +manufactures, education, and religion. The very glimpse of that vision +bewilders the mind. But the many will not to do, while the few great +benefactors of the race will to do. My young friend, be thou among those +who will with noble motives to do. + + + THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of What You Can Do With Your Will Power, by +Russell H. 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