"Where there is a will there is a way," is still true, and if a man draws upon the infinite resources within him he may exclaim with Napoleon, "There shall be no Alps." No man should allow temporary failure to disarm or discourage him. A too easy success would hardly be worth the winning. It is the realization of difficulties overcome, of opposition conquered, and of great heights scaled that bring satisfaction to the mind and joy to the heart of the victor.
In his suggestive essay on "Self-Culture," Channing reminds us that "A vigorous purpose makes much out of little, breathes power into weak instruments, disarms difficulties, and even turns them into assistances." A man who firmly says "I will," is already on the way. But he must not suffer himself to be lured away into by-paths. Once the goal is fixed before him, let him walk unswervingly toward it. Dr. Jules Payot, in his inspiring work on "The Education of the Will," says:
"When a young man has formed this very important and productive habit of deciding things definitely and of doing his work without feverish haste, but in a thorough, straightforward and honest manner, there is no high intellectual destiny to which he may not aspire. Whether he has new ideas or whether he sees old questions from a new point of view, he is going to harbor these ideas in his thoughts during eight or ten years of steady work. They will gradually become surrounded by hundreds of similes and comparisons and likenesses hidden to others, which will become organized and nourish the original ideas until they have grown strong and powerful. And just as great trees spring from acorns, so from such thoughts, fostered by one's attention for many years, there will be put forth powerful books, which will be to honest souls in their struggle against evil what clarions are sounding the charge to soldiers, or else these thoughts will become concrete and will express themselves in a beautiful, harmonious life of uprightness and generous activity."*
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