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2 2 2(JO
THE EDUCATION
OF THE WILL
The Theory and Practise of Self-Culture
BY
JULES PAYOT, Litt.D., Ph.D.
Rector of the Academy of Aix, France
Authorized Translation by
SMITH ELY JELLIFFE, M.D., Ph.D.
Visiting Neurologist, City Hospital, New York; Physician New York
Neurological Hospital; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Ford-
ham University, New York; Translator of Dubois's "The
Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders," etc.
From the Thirtieth French Edition
SIXTH AMERICAN EDITION
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
COPYBIGHT, 1909
BY
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
Published, October, 1009
e. L I
DEDICATION
To M. TH. EIBOT
Director of the Eevue Philosophique
Professor of Experimental Psychology at the College de
France
With sincere affection and respect,
-J. P.
422864
CONTENTS
Page
Preface to the first edition vii
Preface to the second edition xiv
Preface to the twenty-seventh edition .... xxi
THEORETICAL SECTION
BOOK I PRELIMINARIES
I. The Evils to be Overcome 3
II. The Aim to Pursue 23
III. Discouraging and False Theories Concerning
the Education of the Will . . ;.- . . 30
BOOK II THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
THE WILL
I. A Study of the Role that Ideas Play in the
Will . . . , 53
II. The Role of the Emotional States in the Will 70
III. The Kingdom of Intelligence . . . . . 100
BOOK III THE INTERNAL MEASURES
I. The Part of Meditative Reflection in the Edu-
cation of the Will 141
II. What Meditation Means and How to Meditate 198
III. The Role of Action in the Education of the
Will 208
CONTENTS
Page
IV. Bodily Hygiene, Considered from the Point of
View of the Student's Education of His
Will 247
V. A General Glance . . . . . . ... 289
PRACTICAL SECTION
BOOK IV PRIVATE MEDITATIONS
I. The Enemies to Combat: Sentimental Day-
Dreams and Sensuality . . *"..' . . 295
II. Enemies to Combat: Companions, Acquaint-
ances, etc - .' * . . 344
III. Enemies to Combat : Sophisms of the Indolent 355
IV. Joys of Work . . . .\ e -
BOOK V THE RESOURCES OF OUR
ENVIRONMENT
I. Public Opinion, Professors, etc 389
II. Influence of the "Departed Great" V * .412
Conclusion
[vi]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST
EDITION
"What is so admirable is that they recognize
the need of a master and of instruction in all
other affairs and study them with some care.
It is only the science of life which they do
not study at all, and which they do not de-
sire to comprehend."
NICOLE "Treatise on the Necessity of
Not Trusting to Chance."
IN the seventeenth century and during a
part of the eighteenth, religion held supreme
sway over the mind : the problem of the edu-
cation of the will could not present itself in
all its generalities. The forces wielded by
the Catholic Church, that incomparable mis-
tress of character, were sufficient to regulate
along its broader lines the life of the believer.
But to-day this instruction has been elimi-
nated by the majority of thinking men, and
it has never been replaced. Newspapers, re-
[vii]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
views, and even novels, vie with one another
in depreciating the present unimportant role
played by the will.
This universal neglect of the will has
attracted the attention of physicians. But
these physicians of the mind are unfortu-
nately permeated with the prevalent doc-
trines of psychology. In the matter of the
will, they attribute a special importance to
the intelligence. They argue that what we
lack is a metaphysical theory substantiated
from the outside. Their ignorance is quite
excusable. It is a law recognized in polit-
ical economy that cultivation always shifts
from the ground which is the softest but
most unproductive to that which is the
most fertile but the hardest to till. The
same rule applies in the field of psychological
science.
Before approaching the essential phenom-
ena, the explanation of which is difficult, a
study has been made of the simplest appear-
ances, the conduct of which is of little im-
portance. It is difficult to realize how insig-
nificant is the influence on the character of a
simple idea. The will is a sentimental power,
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
and every idea, in order to influence it, has
to be colored with passion.
If the mechanism of the will is studied at
close quarters, it will be seen that metaphys-
ical theories are of little importance, and
that there is no inclination deliberately fol-
lowed which is not capable, by the intelligent
use of our psychological resources, of influ-
encing our entire life. A miser sacrifices
every physical satisfaction; he eats poor
food, sleeps on a hard bed, lives without
friends, without pleasures, all for the love of
money. This being the case, why should
not an idea less degraded have the power
of shaping our destiny? The fact is, that
one does not realize how varied are the
means offered by psychology to give us the
power of becoming what we would like
to be.
Unfortunately, up to the present time very
little attention has been given to the study of
our resources from this point of view.
The spirits which have directed the train
of European thought for the last thirty years
have been divided by two theories, which are
the pure and simple antitheses of the theory
[W
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
of the education of the will. The first con-
sists in treating character as an immovable
block over which we have no control. This
infantile theory will be dealt with later on.
The second seems apparently in keeping with
the education of the will. It is the theory of
the free agent. Stuart Mill himself x goes
so far as to say that this theory has given its
supporters a keen perception of "personal
culture/' In spite of this assertion of a de-
terminist, we do not hesitate in considering
the theory of the free agent as dangerous to
the mastery of self as is the preceding one,
and as definitely discouraging. It has, in
fact, led one to consider self-enfranchisement
as something easy and natural when it is in
reality a task of long duration, a task which
requires much patience, and which demands
a very precise knowledge of psychological
resources.
Through its very simplicity, this theory has
deterred many keen and subtle minds from
the study of the states of the will. It has
thus caused to psychology, and it may be said
to humanity, an irreparable loss.
i< 'Logic," II, Book VI, Chap. II. Paris, F. Alcan.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
This is why this book is dedicated to
M. Ribot. It is dedicated less to our old pro-
fessor, to whom we owe our taste for psycho-
logical research, than to the man of initiative,
who was the first man in France to expel
metaphysics from psychology. First in the
field, he resolutely set aside the investigation
of the nature of the phenomena of conscience,
in order to study as a scholar the antecedents
and the unconditional concomitants of the in-
tellectual and volitional states. This method,
it must be borne in mind, is in no way meta-
physical. It does not exclude psychology
from metaphysics, but simply metaphysics
from psychology, which is a very different
matter. It consists in treating psychology as
a science. The aim of the scholar is not sim-
ply to acquire knowledge, but to turn his
knowledge to account.
The fact that the undulatory theory of light
is only an unverifiable hypothesis, is of little
value to the physician so long as the hypo-
thesis succeeds; and what does it matter to
the psychologist if his hypothesis for in-
stance, the hypothesis of the absolute correla-
tion of the nervous and psychologic states
[xi]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
is unverifiable so long as it succeeds? To
succeed, to be able to anticipate events, to
turn them to our advantage, and in a phrase
to shape our destiny here is the role of the
scholar, and hence that of the psychologist.
This, at least, is the conception we have
formed of our task.
We have had to investigate the causes of
the weakness of the will. We thought that the
remedy was to be found in the careful culture
of affective states. ' ' The means of forming and
strengthening methods of self-enfranchise-
ment, of annihilating or suppressing impres-
sions antagonistic to self-mastery, " might
have been the subtitle of the book we are
offering to the public. This road has been
untraveled; we have given our share of con-
tributive effort to an important task. Instead
of treating the education of the will "in ab-
stracto," we have taken as the essential
subject "the education of the will such as is
demanded by prolonged and persevering in-
tellectual work." We are convinced that
students and intellectual workers generally
will find here much very useful informa-
tion. I have heard many young peo-
[xii]
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
pie complain of the absence of a method in
arriving at self-mastery. I am offering them
the results of nearly four years of study and
meditation on the subject.
JULES PAYOT.
Chamouni, August 8, 1893.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION
THE encouraging reception given by the
foreign and domestic press and an enthusi-
astic public, who exhausted a first edition in
a few weeks, proves that the appearance of
this book was timely, and that it fulfils the
urgent need of an enlightened public.
We thank our numerous correspondents,
and especially those students of law and med-
icine who have sent us such valuable docu-
ments in praise of the first chapter of Book
V. Some of them take exception to our ' ' pes-
simism." Never, they say, has youth talked
so much about action. Alas! to talk is of
little value when we must act. It seems that
the majority of young people confound noise
and agitation with creative action. Some,
and those the best qualified to speak, think
that the youth of the schools consists for the
most part of dilettanti and weaklings. Now
dilettanteism and weakness are two diseases
of the will which it is necessary to try to
[xiv]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
cure. The practical part of the education of
the will has encountered hardly anything but
unmixed praise. The same can not be said
of Chapter III (Book I) and Chapter I
(Book II). We expected to be opposed on
these points, but many of the critics, we think,
have passed to one side of the question.
We have never made the assertion that the
imagination is devoid of all influence on the
will. We have laid great stress, it is true, on
the role played in our volitions by instinctive
promptings and habits. But we maintain in
one place that the superior will consists in
submitting our tendencies to our ideas; and
in another, that the imagination has directly
and immediately no power over the " brute
force of our lower natures. " The power of
the imagination over such adversaries is in-
direct; it must, under pain of failure, get
help from other sources that is to say,
from the affective states.
It is a curious fact that, while we were
prepared to see our theory of liberty chal-
lenged by the defenders of the free agent, it
is rather the partizans of the theory of the
innateness of character who have taken us
[XV]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
into account. Moreover, the theory of the
free agent seems to be discarded more and
more by teachers who find that they have to
deal, not with abstraction but with living
realities. On this subject, I have been told
that M. Marion, who is a great authority in
these matters, indicated with vehemence in
his lecture course of 1884-85 the practical
harm that has been done to us by the meta-
physical hypothesis of the free agent in pre-
venting us from studying the conditions of
real liberty. M. Marion, in the preface to
his thesis on moral solidity, opposes the
formula of M. Fouillee that the idea of our
freedom makes us free. In simply believing
we are free, we never realize the extent of
our freedom, and this view, therefore, is
more true than useful. Nothing is more ob-
vious than that we are not really free until
we have learned to gain our liberty by a hard
struggle.
As for the reproach that has been made
that the author has not made enough of in-
nate character, it seems to us that this rests
on an imperfect conception of what char-
acter is.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
A character is not a simple substance. It
is a complicated result of tendencies and
ideas. In short, to affirm the innateness of
a character is to affirm many absurdities.
First of all, it is assuming that a resultant,
a mass of heterogeneous elements, a method
of grouping forces, can be innate, which is
unintelligible. It is assuming, moreover,
that one can obtain, at the state of perfect
purity, an innate element that can be de-
tached from the maze woven by the influences
of environment and education, which is im-
possible. The impossibility imposes on us the
greatest diffidence in fixing the role played
by innateness.
Lastly, to affirm that the character is in-
nate implies an assertion against which our
intimate experience, the experience of teach-
ers and of the whole of humanity, rebels
the assertion that the essential elements of
character and tendencies are forever un-
changeable. We prove that there is nothing
in this theory (II., iii), and that one can mod-
ify, repress, or strengthen a sentiment. If
the whole of humanity was not of this opin-
ion, one would not give one 's self the trouble
[ xvii ]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
of bringing up children. Nature would take
care of them herself by her immutable laws.
These theoretical views are sufficient to in-
validate the doctrine of the innateness of
character. One should read, to complete the
conviction, the recent works on character, 1
and particularly the last part of the work
by M. Paulhan. It will be seen that there
exists for the most part plurality of types in
the same individual; that evolution makes
tendencies disappear, or produces new ones
as time goes on, that the substitutions of
character in the same individual are frequent.
What does this prove, except that nothing is
so rare as character!
The vast majority of children present the
spectacle of an anarchy of tendencies. Has
not education rightly as its aim the task of
organizing the disorder and producing sta-
bility and uniformity? Often indeed, when
one thinks the work completed, arrives the
crisis of puberty, which, like a wind-storm,
overthrows everything; anarchy recom-
mences, and if the young man, henceforth
iBibot, Eevue philos., November, 1892; Paulhan, "Les
Caracteres," 1 vol. 237 pages, 1894, F. Alcan; Perez,
"Le caractere de 1 'enfant a 1'homme," 1892, F. Alcan.
[ xviii ]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
alone, does not take his share in the task of
moral unification, if he does not forge his
character, he will become one of those "mar-
ionettes" of which we speak.
Moreover, if character was innate, if every
one found everything complete, and, as a gift
with which to celebrate the joyous advent of
his birth, each man found the unity of life,
it ought to be possible to find characters
around us. Where are they?
Is it the political world which furnishes us
with them? Except for lofty exceptions
which render the contrast painful, one rarely
sees whole lives directed toward a superior
goal; the dispersal of ideas and inclinations
is great; agitation is common, and fruitful
actions are rare. One finds too often the
souls of children in the bodies of men.
Who could fail to have observed in litera-
ture, after the terrible hurricane of 1870, an
almost complete unanimity among those who
held the pen to consecrate their efforts to
the glorification of the human animal? And
what shows the justice of the opinion of
Manzoni * is that heredity goes just as far
i Cf . page 208.
[xix]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
toward lessening as toward increasing the
passions.
Instead of stimulating what is greatest and
noblest in ourselves, almost all writers have
appealed to our inferior instincts ; they have
considered all our instincts as confined to the
spinal cord. Instead of a literature for
thinkers, they have given us a literature for
moral decadents.
But why continue? If character implies
unity and stability, if it implies orientation
toward higher ends, it can not be innate.
This unity and this stability, which are repug-
nant to the natural anarchy we possess, must
be mastered slowly. Those who can not, or
will not, pretend to it, must at the same time
renounce that which constitutes the greatness
of the human personality, which is, liberty
and the mastery of self.
JULES PAYOT.
Bar-le-Duc, January 12, 1894.
PREFACE TO THE TWENTY-
SEVENTH EDITION
IN thirteen and a half years the "Educa-
tion of the Will" has reached its twenty-
seventh edition, and it has been translated
into most European tongues. Such a suc-
cess proves how great a need the book has
filled. The publication of the letters which
the author has received constitutes a docu-
ment of vital interest on the mental attitude
of the young people of our time.
The age to which we belong is conducive
to mental unrest. Neither in dogmas nor in-
stitutions can be found the peace of mind
which comes from the certitude of complete
repose. Even Catholicism itself, which at
one time offered a secure sanctuary for the
unsettled mind, is full of the most serious
internal dissensions.
In politics, sociology and morals no prin-
ciple remains undiscust. Secondary educa-
tion, knowing nothing of the will, remains
almost exclusively intellectual. From the
moral point of view, it is an ineffectual com-
promise between precedent and innovation.
[xxi]
PREFACE TO TWENTY-SEVENTH EDITION
Young people start in life with a handicap:
they have not been trained to patience long
sustained, to disinterestedness, to methodical
skepticism, all of which go to constitute the
philosophical spirit.
Their tendency is toward intolerance, and
this because the great doctrine of the rela-
tiveness of knowledge has not penetrated
their practical rule of life. A discipline of
liberty has not instilled in them the habit of
looking for "the soul of truth, " which gives
birth to new ideas. They take sides too soon,
and from that moment they are useless for
the elaboration of superior syntheses, or, in
other words, for the search after truth.
Every man should apply himself with all
his soul to the truth. It is in this that free-
dom consists in the infusion of one's per-
sonal attitude with the realities of life.
To be free means, therefore, that one real-
izes the laws which register the exterior and
interior realities of life, and that one real-
izes one's self. If these two conditions are not
fulfilled, the complete and harmonious de-
velopment of the personality is impossible.
This double consciousness, moreover, can
PREFACE TO TWENTY-SEVENTH EDITION
only be acquired by action. In observing the
effects of action on one's self, little by little
the cloak of prejudice and suggestion which
conceals our deeper tendencies is penetrated,
and the fundamental ego is revealed. Emer-
son remarks that his duty is something which
has to do with his own personality, and not
with the opinions of others a rule as hard
to apply in the practical as in the intellectual
life, but which can take the place of all dis-
tinction between greatness and littleness.
We must therefore have a distinct conscious-
ness of ourselves if we wish to fulfil our
personal destiny completely. If we do not
know ourselves, we become the sport of cir-
cumstances, of suggestions, and of erroneous
beliefs which mar our development and give
it a direction which does violence to our fun-
damental tendencies.
Realizing ourselves and taught by realities
in the midst of which we move, in order to
fulfil our destiny we only have to treat with
the law of causation. It is thus with the
commander of a vessel. It is the tendency of
the waves to swallow him up ; he obliges them
to support him, in the same way that he com-
[xxiii]
PREFACE TO TWENTY-SEVENTH EDITION
pels a contrary wind to take him to port.
Not only does reflex action lay bare our fun-
damental tendencies, but it renders almost
tangible the great moral law which dominates
our social structure. The expansion of my
personality and the proportionate value of
my cooperation in the common task depend
for a large part on the richness, intellectual
and moral, of other men. My highest indi-
vidual power coincides with the greatest de-
gree of outside support and of justice.
But the slow exploration of our funda-
mental tendencies and the intelligent de-
velopment of our will, subjected to the law of
cause and effect, make repose necessary. We
must resist the dilettante habits acquired by
an early encyclopedic training; we must re-
sist the terrifying mental dissipation of use-
less reading, and the trepidation of contem-
porary life. Tranquillity is required before
a solution will form into crystals of regular
beauty. In the same way, we need meditation
if we would mold our fundamental person-
ality into good, energetic habits.
JULES PAYOT.
Chamouni, April 10, 1907.
[xxivj
THEORETICAL SECTION
BOOK I
PRELIMINARIES
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
The Various Forms Under Which a Weak Will Makes
Itself Manifest in the Student and in the Intel-
lectual Worker.
CALIGULA wished that all the Eomans might
have had only one head, so that he could
decapitate them with a single stroke. It is
unnecessary for us to entertain a similar
wish concerning the enemies we have to com-
bat, for there is only one cause of almost all
our failures and of nearly all our misfor-
tunes. This is the weakness of our will,
which shows itself in our distaste for effort,
especially for persistent effort. Our passive-
ness, thoughtlessness and dissipation of
energy are only so many names to designate
the depths of universal laziness, which is to \^
human nature as gravity is to matter.
The only real antagonist that can effect
the persevering will must be found in a con-
tinued force. The passions are by nature
transitory; the more violent they are, the
[3]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
shorter their duration, except in those rather
rare cases where they attain a fixity and a
force bordering on insanity, therefore their
intermittent character does not permit us to
consider them as true obstacles to continuity
of effort. There is time enough between the
intervals of their attacks for a great amount
of work. The real obstacle lies in a funda-
mental ever-present state of the mind which
may be called effeminacy, apathy, idleness, or
laziness. To arouse one's self constantly to
fresh efforts and to renew daily the struggle
against this natural state of mind is the only
way in which we may dare hope for victory.
We call this state of mind fundamental,
but we may as well call it natural. Indeed,
[any continued effort is not kept up long by
I man, except under pressure of necessity.
Travelers are unanimous in their statements
that, among uncivilized races, there is an
absolute incapacity for all persevering effort.
M. Eibot thoughtfully remarks that the first
efforts of voluntary attention were probably
effected by women who were constrained by
fears of blows to regular labor while their
masters rested or slept. Have we not, with
[4]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
our own eyes, seen the redskins disappearing,
preferring to be exterminated rather than
attempt any regular labor which would give
them a greater degree of comfort in life?
Without going so far for familiar ex-
amples, we may observe how slowly a child
settles down to regular work. How few are
the farmers and laborers who try to do better
work than that which was done before their
day, or that which is being done by their fel-
lows. You may, with Spencer, make a men-
tal review of all the objects which you use
during the day, and you will find that there
is not one which could not be better adapted
to the use which is made of it by some slight
effort of intelligence, and you will conclude
with the author ' ' that it really seems as if the
aim of the great majority was to get through
life with the least possible outlay of
thought. "
If we go back to our student days, how
many workers could we cite among our class-
mates? Did not almost all put forth only
the minimum effort necessary to pass their
examinations? And since those college days
how difficult all personal effort and all con-
1*1
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
centrated reflection has seemed ! In all coun-
tries students can stand well in examinations,
by the simple efforts of their memory. Their
ideals, alas! are not very high. What they
desire, as M. Maneuvrier has very astutely
remarked, concerning his own country,
France, are "official positions which are
badly salaried and of little account, without
any future or horizon, where the person ages
as an employee and daily participates in the
nothingness of an almost sterile occupation,
to the decay and gradual numbing of his
faculties, but, in which he rejoices unspeak-
ably, in not being obliged to think or decide
or act. A tutelary regulation impresses on
his activity the regular movements of a clock,
and excuses him from the fatiguing privilege
of acting and living. ' '
But one really ought not to put all the
blame upon those in official positions. No
profession, no career, however elevating it
may be, is able of itself to safeguard one's
personality, or vigor, or energy. During the
earlier years of life the mind is capable of
very active exercises, but soon the number of
new combinations, the number and the pos-
[6]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
sibility of the cases which make effort, reflec-
tion and research necessary diminish. The
accomplishment of the highest functions
which apparently demand powerful mental
efforts, becomes purely a matter of habit.
The lawyer, magistrate, physician, and pro-
fessor, all live on an acquired fund of knowl-
edge which very rarely increases and then
only very slowly. The desire for effort di-
minishes from year to year, and from year to
year fewer occasions arise which would
bring these superior faculties of the mind
into play. Kuts are thus formed in the mind,
the intellect becomes deadened for lack of
exercise, and with it the attention, the re-
flective faculties and the power of reasoning.
If one does not cultivate some intellectual
pursuits, one can not avoid the gradual torpor
which will steal over one's energy.
Now as our book is addrest chiefly to stu-
dents and intellectual workers, it is necessary
to examine very closely the forms which the
"evil to combat" takes among them.
The gravest form of evil among students
is that atony, that "languor of the mind,"
which manifests itself in all the actions of
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
the young man. He sleeps several hours too
long and gets up feeling stupid, dull and lazy.
He slowly and yawningly makes his toilet,
losing thereby considerable time. He does
not feel very "fit," he has no inclination for
work. He finds this a sad cold world. His
laziness is apparent on his very face, his
languor is written on every line of it, his man-
ner is vague, dull and preoccupied; there is
neither vigor nor precision in his movements.
After this lost time he lingers over his break-
fast, reading the newspaper through even to
the advertisements, because that occupies
him without requiring any effort on his part.
In the afternoon, however, some of his energy
comes back, but this is soon wasted in gossip-
ing, in useless discussions, and, what is worse
(as all idlers are envious), in slander. Poli-
ticians, literary men and professors all come
in for their share of his criticism. In the late
evening this unfortunate youth retires a little
more irritable than he was the night before.
For this atony or sloth, with which he ap-
proaches his work, is with him most of the
time in his pleasures. No joy is attained
without some difficulty in this world. All
[8]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
happiness presupposes some effort. To read
a book, to visit a museum, to take a walk in
the park, are pleasures demanding initiative.
They are active pleasures. But active pleas-
ures are the only ones which count, the only
ones which can be indefinitely renewed at
one's pleasure. Lazy people inflict upon
themselves the emptiest lives imaginable.
They allow pleasures to slip through their
fingers, because it is too much trouble to close
their hand. St. Jerome facetiously compares
them to wooden soldiers who always have
their swords raised, without ever striking a
blow.
Fundamental laziness in no way hinders
periodic instances of energy. Uncivilized
people are by no means averse to occasional
outbursts of energy. What is so distasteful
to them is that regulated persistent labor
which in the end amounts to a very superior
degree of energy. Any regular expenditure
of energy, even tho it be slight, accomplishes
more than great efforts separated by long
rests. Idlers can readily endure war, which
demands momentary violent efforts, followed
by long periods of inactivity. The Arabs
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
conquered a vast empire, but they did not
hold it, because they were not able to keep
up the continued effort of organizing and ad-
ministrating the country, such as making
roads, and founding schools and industries.
Even lazy students, when whipt up by the ap-
proach of an examination, are able to buckle
down to slight but steady exertion, which has
to be kept up, every day for months and
years. It is so true that moderate, but con-
tinued, effort alone expresses real and fruit-
ful energy, that we may consider all work
deviating from this type as lazy work. It
goes without saying that continued work im-
plies continuity of direction. Therefore the
energy of the will expresses itself less by mul-
tiple efforts than by the direction of all the
forces of the mind down to hard work, but
what they hate is that toward one definite end.
Here is a type of laziness that is very fre-
quent. A young man is lively, gay and ener-
getic; he is rarely idle. During the day he
reads some treatise on geology, an article by
Brunetiere on Eacine; he glances through
several journals ; rereads some notes ; makes
a rough sketch of a theme, and translates a
[10]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
few pages of a foreign language. He has not
been indolent for a single moment. His com-
rades admire his working power and the
variety of his occupations. Yet we must
brand this young man as a lazy student. To
the psychologist, this great variety of work
simply indicates a certain spontaneous atten-
tion, rich in its ability, but which has not as
yet become voluntary attention. This appar-
ent power for varied work means nothing
more than a great weakness of the will. Our
student furnishes us a very common type of
laziness which we may call the disseminated
type. Such "mental excursions" 1 are truly
delightful, but they are only pleasure strolls.
Nicolle describes those workers who flit here
and there to no purpose as having "buzzing
minds. " They are, to recall Fenelon's simile,
"like a lighted candle set in a windy place. "
The great disadvantage in scattering one's
efforts is due to the fact, that no impression
has time enough to become permanent. We
may lay it down as an absolute law control-
ling all intellectual work, that if we treat all
the ideas and feelings which come into our
i Leibnitz, < ' Theodicee, " Section 56.
[11]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
minds, as if they were transient guests in a
hotel, they will never be more than strangers
to us, and will soon be forgotten. We shall
see, in the following chapter, that true intel-
lectual work requires that all our efforts
should be put forth in a single direction.
This distaste for real effort, that is to say,
for the coordination of all efforts toward a
certain definite aim, is complicated by an
equally strong aversion for personal effort.
Indeed, it is one thing to bring forth a crea-
tive work or an invention, and another to
store in one 's memory that which others have
done. Moreover, if personal effort is difficult
it is because it necessarily implies coordina-
tion. The two supreme forms of intellectual
labor are inseparably united in the work of
creation. It is therefore easy to understand
how distasteful such work must be to the great
majority of pupils, who may, nevertheless,
to-morrow be made class presidents.
Students of philosophy, for example, are
good pupils so long as they are stimulated by
the final examinations. They work hard and
are generally accurate in their work. Un-
fortunately, however, they do not reflect at
[12]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
all. Their laziness of spirit is shown by their
proclivity to think with words, but nothing
more. Thus, in studying psychology it never
enters their heads that they have been ma-
king practical psychology from the day of
their birth to the present time, just as M.
Jourdain found that he had been "speaking
prose without knowing it." It would be
infinitely more simple to examine themselves
and to discover personal examples instead of
committing to memory those cited in their
books. But no, they have an invincible tend-
ency to memorize rather than to seek for
themselves. The enormous amount which
they are thus obliged to stuff into their mem-
ories frightens them less than the slightest
personal effort. They are nothing, if not
passive. Of course one must make some ex-
ceptions, tho they are few, of the best among
the good students.
The experimental test for this incapacity
of effort is furnished in France by the three
monthly examinations for first place. The
majority of students dread this exercise. To
write a theme on a subject where one is not
required to make any original investigations,
[13]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
but merely to rearrange the material fur-
nished by the lecturer according to a new
plan; to set forth one's exposition with that
neatness and orderly precision which the ex-
aminer requires, is, to say the least, a
thoroughly unpleasant task.
Naturally, this fairly wide-spread aversion
to personal effort accompanies the student to
the university, without, however, any dispar-
agement to him, as no examination takes the
candidate's personal worth into considera-
tion. It registers only the status of his
memory, and the level, or rather the low-
water mark, reached by the things he knows.
Any conscientious student who reflects at all
must acknowledge to himself how small a
sum of effort is put forth during the year in
any direction, except that of memorizing facts
of medicine, law, natural science, or history.
It is also curious to note the subtle forms
under which laziness manifests itself in
learned men. Laziness, it must be under- 1
stood, may often accompany great labor and
prodigious undertakings, for quantity does
not by any means make up for lack of quality.
Furthermore, the quantity of work is often
[14]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
prejudicial to its quality. For example,
scholars freely scoff at philosophers, yet it
is for them that, like "Batto" the cat of the
fable, they pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
"Batto" is the symbol of erudite work:
. . . "And thrust out his paw in a delicate way.
First giving the ashes a scratch,
He opened the coveted batch;
Then lightly and quickly impinging
He drew out, in spite of the singeing,
One after another, the chestnuts at last,
While Bertrand continued to devour them as fast. ' ' * . . .
Such work is the kind which one can take
up and put down at pleasure. By constantly
having texts to refer to, the mind does not
need to do any creative work; it can study
profitably even when it has lost its fine
powers of penetration. Time will, perhaps,
confirm the prophecies of Benan concerning
the purely erudite sciences. These have no
future, their results are uncertain and always
open to controversy; and, what is more, the
twenty thousand works which are yearly piled
up in the National Library of Paris, without
counting the journals and periodicals, will in
i From La Fontaine 's Fable, translated by Elizur Wright,
Jr.
[15]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
fifty years add a million volumes to the pres-
ent collection. A million volumes ! Allowing
half an inch for the average thickness of a
volume, it would make a pile four times the
height of Mont Blanc ! Will history, little by
little, get rid of its proper names and devote
itself to great social movements whose causes
and effects are always hypothetic, and will
pure erudition, smothered under the mass of
its own material, lose its power over the
thinking mind? Less and less will mere ac-
cumulation be considered work. The time will
come when such tasks will be called by their
real name, tasks. The word work will be
reserved for the putting forth of real energy,
the elimination of trifling details, and for that
concentration which produces supreme effort
of thought. To create in reality means to
conceive an idea in its essential entirety and
to bring it forth to the light of day. To
magnify trifling details only obscures the
truth, and to the practised eye such a tend-
ency indicates in some way that certain
traces of that inherent laziness which is in
all of us are mingled even with our bursts of
intellectual energy.
[16]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
It must be admitted, alas ! that the system
of instruction, in France at least, tends to
aggravate this fundamental intellectual lazi-
ness. The schedule of study in the under-
graduate courses seems devised to turn every
student into a " scatter-brain. " It obliges
these unfortunate youths to skim over every-
thing, and, by reason of the variety of subjects
to be absorbed, it prevents them from follow-
ing any idea to its source. How is a young man
to find out that such a system of preparatory
education is absurd? Yet it tends to kill his
initiative and to destroy all disposition to be
loyal in his work. A few years ago the power
of the French artillery was mediocre, to-day
it is ten times stronger. Why? Because the
shell used to explode when it struck the ob-
stacle and would go off without doing any
great damage, but now, by the invention of a
special detonator, the shell, after it has struck
continues to move for a few seconds, pene-
trating into the very heart of the place of
attack, and there, in close contact with every
part, it explodes, grinding and pulverizing
everything to pieces. In our practical educa-
tion we have forgotten to add a detonator to
[17]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
the mind. Our acquired knowledge is not
allowed to penetrate profoundly. We would
like to stop a moment, but we are urged to
continue. We did not quite grasp the point ;
the professor's idea is not clear to us. But
like another wandering Jew, we are compelled
to keep on the move. We have yet to go
through mathematics, physics, chemistry,
zoology, botany, geology, the history of every
nation, the geography of five continents, two
living languages, several literatures, psychol-
ogy, logic, moral philosophy, metaphysics,
and the history of philosophical systems. On,
on, we press on toward mediocrity and issue
from our Alma Mater with the habit of study-
ing superficially and judging everything by
appearances.
This rapid pace is hardly lessened even
in the university, and, for many students, be-
comes even more rapid.
In addition, it must be remembered that
the conditions of modern life tend to reduce
our spiritual life to nothing, and bring about
mental distractions to a degree that can
hardly be surpassed. Ease of communication,
frequency of journeys, the habit of going to
[18]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
the mountains, or the sea, all dissipate our
thoughts. There is not even time to read.
One lives a life that is full of excitement and
yet, at the same time, empty. The daily
papers, the artificial excitement they give to
the mind, the ease with which their items of
news lead the interest through various hap-
penings in five continents make the reading
of books seem dull to many people.
How shall we resist this dissipation of
mental energy which leads to mediocrity,
when there has been nothing in our education
to prepare us for such resistance? Is it not
discouraging to think that the most impor-
tant thing, the education of the will, is no-
where directly and consciously taught! All
that is done in this direction is done incident-
ally, with a view to something else. We pay
no attention to anything but to the stocking
up of our minds, and the will is cultivated
only so far as it may be useful in intellectual
work. Cultivated, did I say? I mean stimu-
lated, that is all. No student looks beyond
the present. To-day he is working under a
system of repression and stimulation ; on the
one hand, the professor censures; there are
[19]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
jibes and jokes from one's companions, and
penalties for poor work; on the other, re-
wards and praise. The morrow holds nothing
but a vague far-away glimpse of an approach-
ing examination for the bar, or for a medical
degree, which, even the laziest students,
somehow manage to pass. The education of
the will gets little attention, and yet, is
it not through his energy alone that a man
is able to round out his life? Are not his
most brilliant gifts barren without inward
strength! Is not the energy of the will the
most powerful factor in every great or noble
thing that men accomplish?
Strange to say, everybody says just what
we are saying here. Everybody feels
the disproportion between the excessive
culture of the mind and weakness of the
will. But no book has yet appeared tell-
ing just how the education of the will should
be conducted. A man hardly knows how to
start by himself upon this work which his
professors have not even outlined for him.
Ask any ten students, taken at random from
among those who are doing but little work,
and their confessions will practically amount
[20]
THE EVILS TO BE OVERCOME
to this. When we were at school the professor
laid out the work which we were to do each
day, even each hour. Our lessons were
clearly and definitely assigned. We had to
study such a chapter of history, such a
theorem in geometry, to write such an exer-
cise and translate such a passage. Further-
more, we were helped and encouraged, or per-
haps reprimanded. Our ambition was easily
aroused and kept up. Now everything is dif-
ferent. We have no definite set tasks. We
spend our time according to our tastes. As
we have never been taught to take any initia-
tive in planning our work, which, moreover,
was always made easy and adapted to our
weaknesses, we are exactly like men who are
thrown into deep water after having been
taught to swim with a swimming-belt. We
shall certainly sink, there is no question about
that. We neither know how to work, nor how
to make ourselves work. We do not know
where to go to learn the method by which we
can undertake by ourselves the education of
our will, there is no practical book on this
subject. So we have become resigned and we
try not to think of " flunking " in our exam-
[21]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
illations. It is too depressing. But then
there are the societies and clubs and plenty
of jolly good fellows to keep our spirits up.
Time will pass just the same.
It is this book which so many young peo-
ple complain of not having that we have
tried to write.
[22]
n
THE AIM TO PURSUE
ALTHO the college curriculum ignores the
will, we feel that we value ourselves only in
proportion to our energy, and that we never
can rely upon a man who is weak. Neverthe-
less, on the other hand, knowing that our
efforts show the approximate measure of the
strength of our will, we hardly care to be
judged by that standard. We exaggerate the
amount of work which we do. It is very easy
for a student to say that he rises at four
o'clock in the morning, knowing that no one
is likely to do him the injustice of coming to
investigate his statements. But when you
happen in upon this heroic worker at eight
o 'clock and find him still in bed, you will note
that every one of your rare visits will coincide
with some unusual occurrence, such as an
evening at the theater, or a dance, which ex-
plains the fact of his not being at work at
four in the morning. Meanwhile, you will
have noticed that this prodigious worker has
failed in his examinations.
[23]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
There is no other subject among students
about which so many fibs are told. What is
more, there is no young man who does not
deceive himself, and who does not entertain
delightful illusions concerning his own work
and his capacity for putting forth great
efforts. But what are these very ties if not
a homage paid to the great truth that a per-
son's worth depends on his energy!
Any doubts entertained by others concern-
ing our will power wound us cruelly. To
question our power to work, is as bad as
accusing us of weakness and cowardice. Are
we not relegated to a hopeless mediocrity if
we are considered incapable of that power of
persevering effort, without which one can
not hope to rise above the intellectual poverty
of the majority of men who encumber the so-
called liberal professions.
This indirect homage paid to work proves
the existence of a desire for energy among
students. The only object of this book is to
examine the methods, by the use of which a
young man of vacillating inclinations may
strengthen himself in the desire to work until
it is transformed, first into firm, ardent and
[24]
THE AIM TO PURSUE
lasting resolutions, and finally into invincible
habits.
By intellectual work we understand either
the study of nature and the works of other
men, or personal productions. The work of
production first presupposes study and in-
cludes all kinds of intellectual effort. For
the first kind of work, the instrument of labor
is attention properly so called ; for the second,
meditation or concentration. In both cases
it is simply a question of attention. Work
means attention. Unfortunately attention is
not a stable, fixt, and lasting condition. It
can not be compared to a bow in constant
tension, but consists rather in a repeated
number of efforts in which the tension is more
or less intense, and which follow one another
with greater or less rapidity. In energetic
and disciplined attention, efforts succeed each
other so closely as to give the effect of con-
tinuity, and this apparent continuity may last
a few hours each day. Hence the object of
our endeavor is to be able to put forth some
effort of intense and persevering attention.
Unquestionably one of the best ways in
which we may cultivate self-control is cour-
[25]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
ageously to set for ourselves some daily task
that is difficult. Youth, in its exuberance,
is constantly inclined to give predominance
to the animal life over that which appears to
be the dull unnatural life of the majority of
intellectual workers.
But strenuous and persevering efforts are
not in themselves sufficient; they may be of
the undisciplined and wandering type. They
must, therefore, first of all be directed toward
the same end. There are certain conditions
of intimacy, continuance and repetition which
are necessary if an idea, or feeling, is to gain
a foothold in our minds and remain with us.
These ideas and feelings must gradually
extend their sphere of influence, and widen
their circle of relationships, and thus little by
little make their own personal value felt.
This is how works of art are created. Some
thought, often a living thought of youth, lies
obscurely hidden within a man of genius.
Something that he reads, some incident in life,
a happy expression uttered carelessly by
some author interested in other things, or
not familiar with that kind of thinking, but
who perceives the idea without understanding
[26]
THE AIM TO PURSUE
its fecundity, any one of these gives to the
brooding idea a consciousness of its value
and of its possible role. Henceforth, this
idea will draw nourishment from everything.
Travel, conversation, varied reading will
supply the assimilable elements, on which it
will glut and grow strong. Thus Goethe car-
ried the conception of Faust in his mind for
thirty years. It took all that time to germi-
nate and grow and push its roots deeper and
deeper, and to draw from experience the
nourishing elements on which this master-
piece was developed.
This ought to be the case, to a certain ex-
tent, with all important ideas. If the idea
only passes through us, it will be null and
void. It is necessary to give it repeated, fre-
quent, and careful attention. Care should
be taken, not to abandon it before it can live
independently, or before it has formed an
organized center of its own. It should for a
long time be kept in mind and often referred
to. In this way it will acquire a vitality
strong enough to attract fertile thoughts and
feelings, which it will make a part of itself
by that mysterious magnetic power called
[27]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
association of ideas. This work of the organi-
zation of the idea, or sentiment, is slowly
accomplished by calm and patient meditation.
Such developments may be compared to the
wonderful crystals formed in the laboratory,
which require the slow and regular deposit
of thousands of molecules in the midst of an
absolutely still fluid. It is in this sense that
all discoveries are the product of the will.
It was "by constant thinking about it" that
Newton verified his discovery of universal
gravitation. If there is still any doubt that
genius is nothing but "eternal patience," let
us listen to Darwin's confession: "For my
meditation and reading I select only those
r subjects which make me think directly of
what I have seen, or of what I shall probably
see. I am sure that it was this discipline
which made me capable of doing what I have
done in science. ' ' His son adds : 1 1 My father
had the ability to keep a subject in mind for
a great number of years without ever losing
sight of it." 1
But what is the use of insisting upon such
a self-evident truth ? We may as well sum up
i Life and Correspondence of Charles Darwin.
[28]
THE AIM TO PURSUE
our points. The object to be sought by the
intellectual worker is the energy of voluntary
attention, an energy which expresses itself
not only in the vigor and frequency of effort,
but also, and above all, in the perfect direc-
tion of all our thoughts toward one single
end, and by a subordination, for the time be-
ing, of our volition, feelings, and ideas to the
directing, dominating idea for which we are
striving. Human laziness will always be
tempting us away from this ideal, but we must
strive to realize it as completely as possible.
Before considering the means of transform-
ing a weak, vacillating desire into a lasting
volition, it is important to get rid of two
philosophical theories, which, tho in opposi-
tion to each other, are equally disastrous to
the achievement of such self-mastery.
[29]
Ill
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES CON-
CERNING THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
A POLEMIC should be nothing more than a
piece of preparatory work which the writer
should execute carefully, but which he should
keep to himself. Nothing is more powerless
than pure negation. Constructive argument
is the only thing of value, criticism is useless.
Therefore, because our book is a work of
instruction, and because it sets forth a sound
doctrine that is firmly established on definite
psychological data, we shall here attack two
wide-spread theories which are as deplorable
in their practical results as they are false in
their speculations.
The theory which considers character as
unchangeable is false in itself and regrettable
in practise. This hypothesis, set forth by
Kant and repeated by Schopenhauer, is sup-
ported by Spencer.
According to Kant, we have chosen our
character in the noumenal world and our
[30]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
choice is irrevocable. Once i ' descended ' ' into
the world of space and time our characters,
and consequently our wills, must remain as
they are, without our being able in the slight-
est degree to modify them.
Schopenhauer also declares that different
characteristics are innate and immutable. It
is impossible, for example, to change the
nature of the motives which affect the will of
an egotist. You may by means of education
deceive him or, better still, correct his ideas
and lead him to understand that the surest
way to attain prosperity is by work and hon-
esty, and not by knavery. But as to render-
ing his soul sensible to the suffering of others,
that idea must be renounced. That would be
more difficult than turning lead into gold.
"We may convince an egotist that, giving up
a small profit, he may gain a much larger
one; or we may convince a wicked man that,
by causing pain to others, he may inflict worse
pain upon himself. But as for convincing
them of the wrong of such selfishness and de-
pravity in themselves, you can no more do
it than you can prove to a cat that it is wrong
to like mice."
[31]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
Herbert Spencer takes quite a different
view. He agrees with the English school that,
under certain external forces, the human
character can after a time be transformed
along general lines by the force of external
circumstances and varying conditions in life.
But such work requires centuries. This
theory is discouraging in practise, because I,
as a student, can not calculate on living ten
centuries. I can at most rely on only twenty
years of plasticity. Even if I wanted to set
to work on my own moral amelioration I could
not do it. I could not struggle against the
character and heritage which were bequeathed
to me by my ancestors, and which represent
thousands, and perhaps millions, of years of
experience organically recorded in my brain.
What could I do against a formidable com-
bination of ancestors ; as soon as I try to rid
myself of a part of the inheritance trans-
mitted to me, they array themselves against
my feeble personal will. It would be un-
reasonable even to attempt insurrection. De-
feat from the start would be certain. I may,
however, console myself by dreaming that,
in fifty thousand years, my descendants, by
[32]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
the continued influence of social environment
upon heredity, will resemble so many per-
fected machines, wound up through the
ages, and will grind out devotion, initiative
spirit, etc.
Altho the question of character, seen from
this point of view, lies outside the limit of our
subject, we must nevertheless examine it in
its general aspects, in order to find out our
adversaries' strongest position.
The theories which we have just stated
seem to us to show a remarkable example of
that mental laziness, which, like original sin,
is ineffaceable from the greatest intellects ; a
mental inactivity which makes them submit
passively to the suggestion of language. We
are all accustomed to think with words, but
they often conceal from us the reality of
which they are only the symbols. Because
the word itself is an entity, we are strongly
inclined to believe in the real unity of the
things it stands for. It is to this suggestion,
provoked by the word character, that we owe
the lazy theory of the immutability of char-
acter. But who, for that matter, does not see
that character is only a resultant? But a
[33]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
resultant of forces is always subject to modifi-
cation. Our character has a unity analogous
to that of Europe. The chance of alliances, or
the prosperity or decadence of one state, con-
stantly modifies the resultant. The same is
true of our passions, sentiments and ideas
which are perpetually growing, and which, by
the alliances which they contract or break, can
change the intensity, and even the direction,
of the resultant. Our treatise will, further-
more, demonstrate the possibility of the
transformation of character.
If we examine the arguments in favor of the
theory, we find in Kant only a priori views,
and these a priori views, which he thought
necessary for the foundation of the possibility
of liberty, would have been cut out of the
system like a decayed branch, had not Kant,
as we shall see, confounded fatalism with
determinism.
In Schopenhauer we find more citations of
moral failures than arguments. He is very
fond of showing his erudition by piling up
authorities. The smallest evidence of fact
will always outweigh authority. Here are
the sole arguments we can find in his works :
[34]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
(1) If character were able to be improved,
"one ought to find much more virtue among
the older members of humanity than in the
younger, ' ' which is not the case. (2 ) He who
has once shown himself to be wicked has for-
ever lost our confidence, which proves that
we all believe character to be unchangeable.
Of what value are such arguments to any
one who reflects 1 Are they arguments at all I
What is there in these assertions, however
exact as a whole, that proves that no one can
modify his character? They only prove (and
that does not apply to every one) that the
great majority has never really and seriously
undertaken any reform of character. They
state that one's natural propensities take
care of most matters of life, without the in-
tervention of the will. The majority of man-
kind is governed by external influences. They
follow custom and public opinion, no more
thinking of resisting than we would dream of
refusing to follow the earth in its movements
around the sun. Is it we who raise the ques-
tion of this almost universal idleness? The
majority of men spend their lives in getting
the means of subsistence. Day-laborers, the
[35]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
poor, the worldly minded, and women and
children scarcely reflect at all. They are
" marionettes, " somewhat complicated and
conscious, but whose movements are all gov-
erned by impulses springing from involuntary
desires and external suggestions. Kising
from the animal level by slow evolution,
under pressure of the stern necessity of the
struggle for existence, the majority show
a tendency toward retrogression as soon
as external circumstances cease to stimulate
them. Those who possess no ardent thirst
for the ideal, nor a certain nobility of mind
which shall furnish any inner reason for
pursuing the difficult task of gradually ri-
sing above their animal natures, allow them-
selves to drift. There is, therefore, nothing
surprizing in the statement that the number
of virtuous old men does not surpass the
number of virtuous young men, and that one
has a perfect right to mistrust a man who
has proved himself a rogue.
This argument of Schopenhauer would be
valid if we could prove that all struggle is
useless ; that a selfish man, in spite of want-
ing to do so, has never been able to make any
[36]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
great self-sacrifices. Such a statement is
hardly worth considering. One sees cowards
facing death for the sake of money. There
is not a single passion which could not be
held in check by fear of death. Naturally,
the egoist's most cherished possession is his
life. But have we never seen selfish men,
carried away by transitory enthusiasm,
sacrificing their existence for their country,
or for some other noble cause? If this tran-
sitory state has been possible, what has hap-
pened during the time of the celebrated
operari sequitur esse ? A character which
can transform itself so radically, be it only
for half an hour, is not an immutable char-
acter, and there is hope of renewing this
change more and more frequently.
Moreover, where has Schopenhauer ever
met absolutely consistent characters, as, for
example, one who was an egoist from first to
last in thought and sentiment? Such a
simple setting forth of human nature has
probably never been seen ; and once again,
we must say that the belief that the char-
acter is a unity, or a homogeneous block, is
based on the most superficial observation.
[37]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
Character is the resultant of heterogeneous
forces, and our assertion, based on the ob-
servations of living persons and not on
abstractions, is strong enough to demolish
the naive theories of Kant and Schopen-
hauer. As to Spencer, it will suffice to point
out to his followers that good tendencies are
as hereditary, and as firmly organized, as
bad ones, and that, by skilfully contriving,
one can have as much ancestral power in his
favor as against him. At all events, it is
only a question of degree, which the follow-
ing pages of this book, we hope, will decide.
Let us now leave the theory of immutable
character, as it is no longer able to stand by
itself. Alas, we French, too, have our dis-
couraging theorists, chief among whom is
Taine, who, with a narrowness of view, in-
conceivable in such a great mind, was un-
able to distinguish fatalism from determin-
ism. In his reaction against Cousinian
spiritualism, he went so far as to consider
our life independent of our will, and virtue
as a manufactured product, like sugar. It
was a naive and infantile picture which, by
its cynicism, deterred men for a long time
[38]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
from taking up the study of psychological
determinism, and which at the time of its
appearance and for a long time after, per-
verted the meaning of M. Ribot's book on
the Diseases of the Will. It is only too true
that, in such delicate matters, a host of ad-
versaries is less to be dreaded than a sar-
castic and maladroit friend.
It now remains for us to dispose of a bold
and most alluring theory which states the
possibility of gaining the mastery over self,
since, inasmuch as it has presented the strug-
gle for freedom in too easy a light, has
caused as much, and even more, discourage-
ment than have the fatalist's theories. We
refer to the theory of free will. Free will,
which philosophers have tried to associate
with moral liberty, has in reality nothing to
do with that, for to lead young people to be-
lieve that any such long and arduous under-
taking as the task of achieving one's free-
dom can be accomplished with perfect ease,
merely by proclaiming that they are free, is
to doom them to discouragement from the
very beginning. As soon as the young man's
enthusiasm has been aroused by the study of
[39]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
the lives of great men of the past, it is a good
plan to call his attention to this most im-
portant element of their success, hiding
none of the difficulties to be overcome, but
at the same time pointing out to him the
sureness of triumph if he perseveres.
One can no more become master of him-
self by proclaiming himself to be free than
France became powerful by the fiat of 1870.
She has had to put forth twenty years of
hard and persevering effort, in order to re-
cover her position. In the same way, our
personal uplifting must be a work of
patience. Why? One sees people spending
thirty years in the practise of a difficult pro-
fession, in order to be free to retire to the
country. Should one grudge the time that
must be devoted to such a lofty and noble
work as the mastery of one's self?
On our self-mastery depends our true
worth, namely, what we ourselves shall be-
come and the role which we shall play in life.
By means of it we shall be able to inspire
both the esteem and respect of every one. It
will throw open to us every source of happi-
ness (for all our deepest happiness springs
[40]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
from well-regulated activity), which is an
opportunity that hardly any one who has
attained maturity will fail to appreciate.
Affected contempt for it evidently hides
secret misery, a fact which we have all ex-
perienced. What student has not sadly
realized the disproportion between his desire
to do good work, and the feebleness of his
will ? ' ' You are free ! ' ' the professors say, but
we listen to their statement in false despair.
No one has taught us that the will may be
slowly conquered; no one has thought of
studying how to conquer it. No one has
trained us for this struggle; no one has
helped us, and hence, as a perfectly natural
reaction, we fervently accept the doctrines of
Taine and the fatalists, which at least con-
sole us and help us to be resigned in the use-
less struggle. And because we shut our eyes
to the untruth of these doctrines which con-
nive at our laziness, we let ourselves drift
tranquilly on to the rocks.
The real cause of these fatalistic theories
concerning the will is the naive and dismal
theory of the philosophy of free will ! Moral
liberty, like political liberty, and everything
[411
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
else that is of any value in this world, can
only be acquired by great effort and inces-
sant struggle. It is the reward of the strong,
the skilled and persevering man. No one
is free who has not earned the right to be
free. Liberty is neither a right nor a con-
dition, it is a reward. It is the highest re-
ward, and the one most productive of hap-
piness. To the daily occurrences of life it is
what sunlight is to a landscape. He who has
not achieved it misses all the deep and last-
ing joys of life.
Alas! No question has been made more
unintelligible than this vital question of
liberty. Bain calls it the "rusty lock" of
metaphysics. It is evident that by liberty
we understand self-mastery; the sense of
assurance in our mind that noble sentiments
and moral ideas have ascendency over our
animal tendencies. By this, we do not mean
that we can become infallible in our self-
control, for the centuries are still too few
that separate us from our savage cave-dwell-
ing ancestors to allow us to rid ourselves
absolutely of the heritage of irascibility,
egotism, sensuality and laziness which they
[42]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
have bequeathed to us. The great saints
who triumphed in the ceaseless struggle be-
tween their human and their animal natures
did not know the joy of serene and uncon-
tested victory.
But let us call attention again to the fact
that the work which we are outlining is not
as difficult as the work of self-sanctification.
For it is one thing to struggle against lazi-
ness and passion, and another to attempt ab-
solutely to root out the egotism of one's
nature.
But even when reduced to these terms, the
combat is long and difficult. Neither the
ignorant nor the presumptuous can conquer.
There are certain methods to follow which
must first be learned, and one must make up
one 's mind to labor long. To enter the arena
without knowing the laws of psychology,
or without following the advice of those who
know them, is like expecting to win a game
of chess over an experienced adversary
without knowing the moves of the pieces.
But the partizans of such chimerical free
will will say that if you can not create^
or if you can not by the act of will-
[43]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
ing give to any motive or impulse a force
which it did not naturally possess, then
you are not free. Nevertheless, we are
indeed free and we do not desire to be other-
wise free. Instead of pretending to give
force to a motive by a simple volition or by
a mysterious whimsical act contrary to all
scientific laws, we propose to give it force
by the intelligent application of the laws
of association of ideas. We can only con-
trol human nature when we obey it. The
only guarantee of our liberty is found in the
laws of psychology, which, at the same time,
are the only means by which we can attain
freedom. The only liberty there is for us
lies in the bosom of determinism.
Here we are at the crucial point of the
debate. We are told that, if we do not ad-
mit that the will without being accompa-
nied by desire, but simply by its own free
initiative, can quicken a feeble impulse to the
point of dominating over powerful passions
then we presuppose the desire. If a student
feels no desire to work, he will never work.
Here we are confronted by a predestination
more cruel than that of Calvinism. For the
[44]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
Calvinist predestined to hell does not know
it and the hope of heaven never leaves him.
But our student, by searching the depths
of his conscience, is able to perceive that he
has no desire, and that he is lacking in
grace, and he therefore concludes that all
effort is useless, and that he may as well
close the door upon hope.
Here is the question in a nutshell. Either
I have, or else I have not, the desire for
better things. If I do not have it, all my
effort is in vain. But as I am not responsible
for my desire, and as grace, like the wind,
bloweth where it listeth, I find myself driven
to fatalism rather than to predestination.
Very well ; but in granting this we grant less
than would appear. Note that the desire
for improvement, however feeble it may be,
is sufficient, because by employing the proper
means to cultivate it, it can be developed,
strengthened, and transformed into a strong
and lasting resolution. But some desire
there must be, even tho it be the faintest
you can imagine. If it does not exist you
can do nothing.
We admit this fully; and we believe those
[45]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
who hold that liberty can be achieved by a
single act will allow that one can not base
much hope upon a decision to improve one's
self which does not rest on some desire for
improvement. To perform a difficult piece
of work unwillingly, or not to like what one
is trying to attain, is to deprive one's self of
all chances of success. In order to succeed,
one must love his work. But again, a
student either possesses or lacks this love
or desire. If he lacks it, then he must be
hopelessly condemned. We grant the di-
lemma. Yes, desire is necessary; where
there is no desire to become free, there will
be no liberty ! But the doleful effects of such
predestination apply only to that limited
number of people whom even the most rabid
partizans of free will themselves would con-
sider as having an unfortunate predestination.
In fact, such a group corresponds to
those insane persons who suffer from moral
insanity. "We hold, tho without being able
to prove it, because we have never encoun-
tered any negative cases, that, if we were
to ask any man whosoever not mentally
afflicted, if he would prefer the glorious
[46]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
career of a Pasteur to that of a debased
drunkard, he would answer "Yes." Here
evidently is a postulate; it is our postulate,
and one which no one can contest. But who
will contest it?
Are there any men absolutely insensible
to the splendor of genius, to beauty, and to
moral grandeur? If such a brute exists, or
has existed, I confess that I have no interest
in him. But if my postulate is true, and true
it is for the totality of human mankind, that
is enough for me. For, if a person prefers
the grandeur of a Socrates, a Eegulus or a
Vincent de Paul to the ignoble depravity
of the most repulsive specimens of the
human species, such a preference, no matter
how feeble it may be, is quite sufficient. For
to prefer implies love and desire. This de-
sire, no matter how fleeting it may be, can be
held and protected. It will grow strong if
it is cultivated, and will, through the skilfully
managed interplay of the laws of psychol-
ogy, be transformed into a virile resolu-
tion. It is thus that from an acorn, which
is a meal for a mouse, there arises a power-
ful oak which defies the hurricane.
[47]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
We are therefore not at all troubled by
being driven to such predestination, since,
with the exception of a group of incurable
insane, and some few dozen hopeless brutes,
we are all predestined to good behavior.
Morality therefore does not need to link its
fate to such a hazardous, and, let us repeat,
such a discouraging theory, as that of free
will. Morality needs only liberty, which is
quite a different thing, and this liberty is pos-
sible only in and by reason of determinism.
All that is necessary to establish the pos-
sibility of liberty is that our imagination
shall be capable of conceiving a plan of life
to be realized. Our knowledge and practise
of the laws of psychology will enable us,
by means of various combinations and alli-
ances, to carry out the main lines of our
chosen plan, and to take advantage of time,
which is the most powerful factor in accom-
plishing our freedom, and use it toward
that end.
Possibly our conception of liberty may
not be as seductive to the lazy man as the
theory of free will, but it has the advantage
over the latter of being adequate for our
[48]
DISCOURAGING AND FALSE THEORIES
psychological and moral nature, as it really
is. It does not expose us to ridicule by letting
us haughtily affirm that we possess abso-
lute liberty while our statement is constantly
contradicted by our only too evident sub-
serviency to the enemies within. If such
a contradiction were merely amusing to the
psychological observer, it would not be so
bad; but it does not stop there, it goes on
producing discouragement in those who
have the greatest desire to improve.
Furthermore, this theory of free will has
prevented many a discerning mind to our
irreparable loss from studying the con-
ditions of the will. 1
Now that our path has been cleared of
these popular theories concerning the nature
of the will, we can get right at the heart of
our subject, and take up the study of the
psychology of the will.
1 To be convinced of this it is only necessary to remem-
ber into what utter oblivion that very profound psycholog-
ical work concerning the will, produced by the school of
Cousin, has fallen. We refer to the Tableau de I'activite
volontaire pour servire d la science I 'education, by Debs.
Amiens, 1844.
We believe that Debs died at about the age of 44. There
[49]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
are many pages in his book showing profound penetration,
especially when the date of the work is considered. I call
attention to an exposition beginning on page 30, and the
following pages, of the theory reproduced by Professor
William James, namely, that the will only unites terms in
their mental order. What would not so fine a mind as
Jouffroy's have done along this line of study, had he not
been misled by the whimsical discussion of free will then
in fashion. This theory has hindered the study of the will
for half a century.
[50]
BOOK II
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WILL
A STUDY OF THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
IN THE WILL
IF the elements of our psychologic life were
simple, nothing would be easier than to study
the dangers, as well as the resources, which
they offer to the work of self-mastery; but
these elements are so interdependent, and
so combined with one another, that it is very
difficult to analyze them in detail.
Nevertheless, it is easy to see that the
elements of our inner life fall into three
groups: our ideas, our emotional states, and
our actions.
The word idea includes many different
elements. The most profound distinction
which the psychologist, who is interested in
the relation of intelligence to the will, can
make between our different ideas is to sepa-
rate them into centripetal ideas and centrif-
ugal ideas. A great many ideas come from
the outside; they are what Montaigne called
" chaff of the sieve/' mere transitory visi-
[53]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
tants which have not gone through any
process of assimilation, and for which our
memories seem only a repository.
Ideas wholly at variance with each other
lodge side by side in our minds. All of us
have in our heads a host of thoughts de-
rived from reading and conversation, and
even from our dreams. These, strangers to
each other, have taken advantage of our
mental laziness to introduce themselves to
us, the majority under the authority of some
writer or professor. It is in this assembly,
where there is good as well as worthless
material, that our laziness and sensuousness
seek their justification. We are the masters
of ideas of this kind. We can bring them
into line and develop them after our own
fashion. And if we have complete mastery
over them they have hardly any over us.
The majority are scarcely more than words,
and the struggle of words against our lazi-
ness and sensuality is like the clashing of
an earthen pot against a pot of iron. M.
Fouillee has fostered a false point of view by
speaking of idea-forces. He has never noticed
that the executive force of an idea almost
[54]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
always comes from its union with those real
sources of power which we call the "affect-
ive," or emotional, states. Every turn of
experience convinces us of the feebleness of
ideas. There is a vast difference between
purely formal approbation and the active,
efficient faith that rouses one to deeds. The
moment that the intelligence has to struggle
alone, without any outside help, against the
brutal array of sensual forces, it is reduced
to helplessness. As long as one is in good
health, such isolation of the intelligence is
impossible: but sickness proves to us very
clearly that all force which instigates im-
portant actions emanates from sensibility.
We do not mean to say that intelligence has
no force in itself, but rather that it seems
to us quite powerless to eradicate, or repress,
our forceful and persistent animal tend-
encies.
M. Eibot, 1 has shown, by means of stri-
king examples, that when sensibility is pro-
foundly diminished, when there is no joy
following sensation, then the idea remains
inert and cold; an intelligent man may be-
i ' ' Maladies de la volonte, ' ' p. 38, seq.
[55]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
come incapable of even lifting his hand to
sign his name. Which one of us, on waking
after a restless night with little sleep, has not
found himself in just such a condition.
Plunged in a state of profound lethargy, our
intelligence is as keen as ever, and we see
exactly, what we ought to do, but alas ! we
realize that the idea has little strength in
itself. But let us, at such a moment, hear
the servant talking outside with a visitor
whom he is about to announce, and whom we
have wholly forgotten, and the confusion of
being found at fault, which is a sentiment,
will make us jump out of bed in the greatest
haste. In the case which M. Eibot quotes,
one gets a vivid illustration of the contrast
between the effect of the ideas and that of
the feelings. One of the patients of whom
he speaks, who was incapable of making the
slightest voluntary movement, was the first
to jump out of the carriage when it ran over
a woman in the road.
Unfortunately, pathological states are
looked upon as something apart, while they
are in fact only an exaggeration of the
reality. Just as a miser is always ready to
[56]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
laugh at the follies of Harpagan, without
ever seeing anything in himself to laugh at,
so we refuse to see ourselves in the sharply
defined pictures presented to us by mental
diseases.
But all our experience convinces us more
and more of the powerlessness of the idea.
We need hardly refer to the case of alco-
holics who know full well the consequences
that will follow their drunkenness, but who
do not feel them until the first attack of
delirium comes, and then it is too late. What
is this want of foresight, if not the vision
of future threats without the feeling of these
threats? The calamity comes. Ah, if I had
only known, they say. They did know, but
not with that feeling that moving knowledge,
which, as far as the will is concerned, is the
only thing that counts.
Underneath this superficial layer of ideas
which do not penetrate to any depth, are
found ideas which can be helped by passing
feelings. For example, one may have spent
several days in a state of semi-laziness, in
reading perhaps, but not be able to get up
energy enough to go on with a book which
[57]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
is lying there waiting to be written, and this
in spite of very excellent reasons that we
have for doing so. Suddenly, the mail brings
us news of the success of some friend, and
we are piqued into emulation, and what the
most worthy and sensible line of reasoning
could not effect, is brought about instantly
by a wave of mediocre emotion.
I shall always remember an event that
showed me, with unmistakable clearness, the
difference between an idea and an emotion. It
was in the gray of early dawn when I was
crossing a snowbank which sloped so rapidly
that its lower part disappeared in the dark-
ness. I began to slip, but did not lose my head
for a moment, tho I was perfectly conscious of
the fact then that I was in a critical situation,
and in extreme danger. I succeeded, even
while I was thinking that I was going to be
killed, in slowing up a little, and finally in
checking my slide altogether about a hundred
yards further down. With perfect calmness
I walked slowly across the snowbank by the
help of my alpenstock, but the moment I
found sure footing on the rocks and was
definitely saved, I was seized (possibly by
[58]
THE HOLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
reason of the exhaustion caused by my ex-
cessive efforts), with a violent fit of
trembling. My heart beat rapidly and I was
bathed in a cold perspiration, and then only
did I experience a sense of fear and extreme
terror. In an instant the idea of danger had
become a feeling of danger.
Lying much deeper than these ideas of ex-
ternal origin, which are adopted provisorily
by transitory emotional states, are other ideas
which, altho they also come from without,
are in harmony with fundamental feelings,
and which are so closely bound up with them
that one can not say whether the idea has
absorbed the emotion, or the emotion the
idea. At this point, they become confused
with ideas of internal origin coming from
the depths of our being which are, as it
were, a translation into set terms of our very
character and our profoundest tendencies.
Our sentient personality gives them a warm
coloring: they are, to a certain extent
emotions. Like lava, which tho cooled on
the surface, will remain molten for years at
a certain depth, these ideas retain, even
after they have been metamorphosed into
[59]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
intelligence, the heart of their original emo-
tion. They not only inspire, but sustain,
prolonged activity in any given direction.
Nevertheless, it must be distinctly re-
membered that these ideas are not ideas at
all; they are distinct, definite and quick re-
sponding substitutes of the feelings; that is
to say, of powerful psychological conditions
which move slowly, and are cumbersome and
difficult to handle. They are very different
from the superficial ideas which make up
" the external man," and which are often
merely words, or signs barren of any signifi-
cance. Their energy comes to them, as it
were, by their roots. It is a borrowed energy
which they draw up from the living source
of the sentiments and passions in short, a
word from the emotional states. When an
idea such as that of which we have spoken
is born into a soul that receives it warmly, by
some duplex and mysterious phenomenon of
endosmosis which we shall study, it draws to
itself all the sentiments which it needs to im-
pregnate it, and in some way nourish itself
and strengthens itself upon them, and more-
over the power of the idea passes into the
[60]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
sentiments and gives them, not only strength,
but direction. The idea is to the feelings
what magnetization is to the innumerable cur-
rents in a bar of soft iron; it leads them all
in the same direction, and destroys conflict-
ing currents, so that, what was only an inco-
herent mass, becomes an organized current
with a hundredfold strength. Thus it some-
times happens in politics, that a happy ex-
pression uttered by some popular leader will
be enough to swing the various hitherto dis-
organized anarchical tendencies of democracy
sharply around into a definite and organized
form.
But reduced to themselves ideas have no
power against the brute strength of natural
inclinations or tendencies. Who has not at
some time had the experience of being seized
at night with an absurd unreasoning terror,
and of lying in bed, with his heart beating
violently, his temples bursting with the rush
of blood to his head, and of being incapable
of driving away this ridiculous emotion, in
spite of the fact that his reason and intelli-
gence were both perfectly clear and active.
If any have not had such an experience I
[61]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
advise them to sit up after midnight when
the wind is howling out in the country in
the depth of winter, and read the "Walled-
up Door," one of Hoffmann's fantastic tales.
They will then see for themselves how power-
less their intelligence and reason will be to
cope with the emotion of fear.
But, without referring to examples of such
strong and almost instinctive emotion, one
can see the difference in the effects produced
by ideas and by emotional states, by studying
acquired feelings. Compare the purely in-
tellectual parrot-like belief of the citizens of
any small French town with the faith of a
Dominican monk. The latter, because he
feels a religious truth, is able to sacrifice
himself utterly, deprive himself of everything
that the world holds dear, accept poverty
and humiliation and lead a severe, hard life.
The citizen whose belief is merely intel-
lectual goes to mass, but feels no sense of
repugnance at his egregious selfishness. He
is rich, but he works a poor servant pitilessly
hard, and gives her scarcely enough to eat
while demanding the utmost of her service.
Compare the lightly uttered socialistic
[62]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
opinions exprest by a demagog, who de-
nies himself no pleasure and spares no ex-
pense to gratify his vanity, with the
socialism felt by a Tolstoi, who, tho possest
of every gift, noble birth, fortune and genius,
yet lives the life of a Russian peasant.
In the same way, the idea of the inevit-
ableness of death is with most people merely
an abstract conception. This idea which, after
all, is so full of consolation and rest, and so
calculated to weaken our ambitions and check
our proud and selfish impulses, and heal the
source of all our troubles, has nevertheless
no influence upon our conduct. How could
it be otherwise, when, even by those who are
condemned to death, this idea is seldom felt
till the last moment. Dickens writes of the
sentence of Fagin :
"Not that, all this time, his mind was, for
an instant free from one oppressive over-
whelming sense of the grave that opened at
his feet; it was ever present to him, but in
a vague and general way, and he could not
fix his thoughts upon it. Thus, even while
he trembled, and turned burning hot at the
idea of speedy death, he fell to counting the
[63]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
iron spikes before him, and wondering how
the head of one had been broken off, and
whether they would mend it or leave it as
it was. Then, he thought of all the horrors
of the gallows and the scaffold and stopt to
watch a man sprinkling the floor to cool it
and then went on to think again. ' ' 1
It is unnecessary to go on multiplying ex-
amples. Each one searching in his own past
experience can collect a large number of
characteristic facts that will coincide with our
conclusions. Ideas by themselves do not
constitute a force. They would be a force,
provided they were the only thing in con-
sciousness ; but, as they often find themselves
in conflict with the emotional states, they are
obliged to borrow from feelings the force
which they lack when they come to struggle
against them.
The powerlessness of ideas is all the more
deplorable because we have them com-
pletely under our control. The easily regu-
lated determinism of the association of con-
scious states gives us almost absolute free-
dom in the matter of the intellect.
i Charles Dickens, "Oliver Twist," ch. 52.
[64]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
By the very laws of association them-
selves, we are able to break the chain of
associated states and to introduce new ele-
ments into them and then connect the chain
again. While I am casting around for an
example to illustrate this theoretical state-
ment, chance which faithfully looks after all
those who pursue an idea, has offered me
one. A factory whistle blows. This sound,
against my will, has interrupted the train
of ideas which I was following and has
suddenly introduced to my conscious-
ness a picture of the sea with a back-
ground of strong mountain peaks, and then
comes the beautiful panorama which is seen
from the quays of Bastia. This is because
the whistle had exactly the same sound as
that of the steamboat which for three years
I so often heard there. Ah well T you want
freedom. Here it is. It is the law of the
strongest. The direct presentation of a
state is, as a rule, stronger than the repre-
sentation of it in memory and if the whistle
can break a train of thoughts which we wish
to follow, we can deliberately make use of
such an effect. We can, if we wish to free
[65]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
ourselves from some association of ideas,
introduce a strong presentation of an idea
or thing that will violently break the chain.
There is one presentative state that is par-
ticularly easy and convenient, viz., move-
ment, and among movements those which con-
stitute language. One can pronounce words
out loud, or one can read them. One can even
scourge one's self, as the saints do in mo-
ments of temptation, and thus violently break
the train of dangerous associations. Any
idea which we want to use as a starting-point
for a new direction of thoughts, in order to
gain a victory over another line of thoughts,
we can drag in, as it were, by force.
We are, moreover, wonderfully aided in
our endeavors by the great law of memory.
All recollection, in order to be deeply
graven, must be repeated frequently, and
for a long time. There is first the need of
keen and sympathetic attention, if I may so
describe it. The cerebral substrata of the
chain of ideas which we have expelled from
our consciousness and which we keep in
exile, fade and disappear, and with their
own atrophy bring about the effacement of
[66]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
corresponding ideas. We are thus masters
of our thoughts; we can pull up the weeds
and can even destroy that portion of the
ground that bore them.
On the other hand, when we wish to keep
the associations that are presented and to
let them develop, we first take great pains
to eliminate all the presentative conditions
which are foreign to our object and which
lie ready to obtrude themselves upon our
consciousness.
We find a quite calm place, and we even close
our eyes if the web of our thoughts is woven
of fragile stuff. Furthermore, we make use
of the right presentative states that will help
us; we speak out loud, or we write our
thoughts; for writing more than anything
else is a wonderful aid to prolonged medi-
tation. It sustains thought and calls in the
movements of the hand and the eyes to aid
and abet the ideas. In myself I find a
natural propensity which has been strongly
cultivated by my profession. I can not read
without articulating, so that for me thought
is strengthened by three lines of presenta-
tive sensations, I might even say by four, as
[67]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
it is difficult to articulate without hearing the
word. x
In summing up, we see that it is because
we have full control of our muscles,
especially those of the organs of sense or
those which we bring into play in language,
that we are able to free ourselves from the
bondage of the association of ideas. There
may be differences in each one of us accord-
ing to our nature. In practical psychology,
it is not at all permissible to generalize con-
cerning any special case, for new types are
discovered every day, which hitherto were
not distinguished from the others. 8 But for
myself, the only reminder that I have at my
1 It is well known that the memory of a word is very com-
plex, and that it is composed of four elements: (1) a mo-
tive image (the pronouncing of the word), (2) a visual
image (the word in print or in manuscript), (3) an audi-
tory image (the sound of the word as it is spoken), (4) a
graphic motor image (the writing of the word). As thought
is impossible without language, it is evident in all thought
there must be woven one or more strands formed by these
images of which we have just spoken. When we write we
should weave together all four strands to sustain our
thought.
2 Cf. Eibot, "L Evolution des ide"es Generates." F. Alcan,
1891.
[68]
THE ROLE THAT IDEAS PLAY
disposal and the one I always call in first,
when I wish to break in on a line of thought
and change it to another, is to imagine some
movement. I have control over my thoughts
only because I am master of my muscles.
From the point of view of the self-edu-
cation of the will, the conclusion of this
chapter is somewhat discouraging. We can
master our ideas, but alas! the strength of
our ideas, in the struggle against laziness
and sensuality, is hardly appreciable. Let
us see whether we shall attain a happier re-
sult in studying the resources which the
emotional states offer us in the work of
mastering self.
[69j
n
THE ROLE OF THE EMOTIONAL STATES
IN THE WILL
THE possibilities of power that the emo-
tional states have over our wills can not be
exaggerated. They can do anything ; they can
even make us face suffering and death with-
out hesitation. To state their power, is simply
to state an empirical law of the universe.
But can this empirical law be transformed
into a scientific law; that is to say, can a
higher law be derived from it, and be con-
sidered as a conclusion deduced from an
evident truth!
If we analyze sentiment, separating from
one another the mingled elements of which
it is composed, we find that we can compare
it to an adagio of Beethoven in which there
is a fundamental motif running through all
the variations, now almost disappearing and
now standing out clearly. Such a phrase re-
curring again and again in a thousand
forms is, as it were, the soil in its variety
[70]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
and unity, which brings life to the musical
creation. This motif sustaining the whole
adagio with its wonderful richness, illus-
trates the way in which an elementary theme
can underlie an emotion or sentiment. It is
this theme which gives to the sentiment its
unity. Upon it there may be developed varia-
tions of richest sensations, of pleasure, grief,
and memory. But through all of them runs
the theme which gives the particular tone
to these secondary elements. As human be-
ings, according to Descartes, do not exist
except by a continuous creation of God, so
even our pleasures, our griefs, our sen-
sations, and our memories have no reality,
except by a sort of continued creation,
through the living energy of the theme by
which they are glorified. Without it, one
would have nothing but a collection of cold,
dry, purely abstract psychological con-
ditions without color and without force.
This inner depth of force in the emotions
explains why they have such robust power.
In fact, what are these underlying tenden-
cies, if not our natural activity and ardent
wishes which through the powerful dis-
[71]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
cipline of pain, have been obliged to restrict
their development in many directions, and to
submit themselves to the inevitable choice,
either of perishing or of following along
certain channels, which means along the line
of certain specially organized tendencies 1
Activity without the discipline of pain
would be scattered in all directions and
weakened: experience has taught it to move
along the line of certain tendencies, and
these tendencies, one sees, are, after all, our
sensual primitive energy, which in molten
streams breaks through the superficial crust
of acquired ideas and of secondary senti-
ments of the outside world. It is our living
force which flows into the proper muscles,
and is transmuted into habitual acts. This
in itself explains the motor power of the
inclinations. They consist of a group of
movements, or rather of a number of ele-
mentary movements. For example, the
muscular material brought into play by
anger, or the emotion of love, is, in the main,
always the same in every instance. It is,
moreover, practically the same for the en-
tire human race. Whatever it is, it has ex-
[72]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
isted in innumerable generations, which
have transmitted its existence to us. On
this rather ancient fabric, each one em-
broiders his own personal pattern; but the
general effect is so coherent, that even babes
in their cradles know the meaning of it.
This connection between a certain tendency
and a certain group of muscles has been
transmitted by heredity. It is a bond of
great antiquity. One can readily see how
these strands, with which I might de-
liberately connect a certain idea with a cer-
tain muscular movement, would have very
little strength compared with those other
bonds which had become automatic. The
only chance that such would have of not
being broken in this unequal struggle
would be, as one can foresee, by seeking
alliance and making common cause with
hereditary tendencies : in this way, one could
risk a struggle, for the fragile web connect-
ing the idea with the movement would not
have to bear the brunt of the strain. The
force that lies in sentiment or feeling is
shown by the richness of its results.
A strong feeling may disturb psychological
[73],
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
conditions which are apparently wholly inde-
pendent of it, as for instance the perception
of real objects. It is true that all percep-
tion, even elementary perception, is an inter-
pretation of certain signs. I do not see an
orange ; I only judge by certain signs that it
must be an orange. But with habit, this
interpretation becomes instantaneous and
automatic and consequently is not easily dis-
turbed. It is quite possible for a strong emo-
tion to drive away the true interpretation
and to suggest a hallucinatory one which
takes the place of the other in our conscious-
ness. Without stopping to speak of fear in
the night, which puts the most absurd inter-
pretation upon perfectly natural noises, we
may remind ourselves how hatred can blind
us to the most evident facts. If any one is
tempted to call to account the curiously false
ideas that mothers have concerning the
beauty of their children, they should recall
Moliere's clever little sally in which he
laughs at the illusions created by love :
The sallow girl is like a pearl, the fairest he has met,
The swarthy one from whom men run, a ravishing brunette,
But our perception is not the only thing
tm
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
which is led astray by our feelings. Strong
feelings have no consideration for weak feel-
ings. For example, and we shall soon have
reason to emphasize this fact, vanity, which
is a very powerful sentiment in most people,
can drive all well-established sentiments
completely out of mind. Our sentiments of
what is proper and fashionable are very
largely suggested by our amour propre.
These strangers strut into our consciousness
and cover up our true feelings, just as a
specter appearing against the wall seems to
hide the pattern of the tapestry from the
person who has the hallucination as effec-
tually as a person who was really present
would do. As a result of such autosugges-
tion, the student sacrifices the true joys of
his youth and environments to imaginary
pleasures, which, when stript of the glamour
of the sentiments suggested by his vanity, or
by the pace which his fellows set, he finds
worthless. It is for this reason that worldly
people, whose tastes and incapacity have
made them superficial, and who never go
down deep enough in their own hearts to find
out what their real feelings are, so often turn
[75]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
out in middle life to be stupid and vapid, tho
apparently busy with many interests. They
get into the habit of imagining that they are
really feeling the conventional sentiments
which it is the proper thing in their world to
appear to feel, and this habit finally kills in
them the possibility of experiencing real
emotions. This subjection to "what people
would say" turns out very agreeable and
polished individuals without the slightest
originality, pretty mechanical puppets who
are worked by strings in other people's
hands. Even in the deepest experiences of
life, they only feel conventional emotions.
It is very evident that if we can juggle with
our perceptions and our sentiments which
are fairly stable and permanent, the emo-
tional states would have no difficulty in dis-
turbing those delicate psychological condi-
tions known as memories. And as all judg-
ment and all belief depend on gaining more
or less complete information, followed by a
precise valuation of the elements of the in-
formation, it is evident that the feelings could
have tremendous consequences in this di-
rection. ' ' The chief use to which we put our
[76]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
love of truth, is to persuade ourselves that
what we love is true." * We nearly all of us
imagine that we take sides, that we choose
between several paths that are open to us.
Alas ! Our decision has nearly always taken
place in us, and is not taken by us. There is
no participation of our conscious will. Our
tendencies, sure of their final victory, con-
sent after a fashion to let our intelligence
look the matter over; they are quite willing
to grant her the empty satisfaction of be-
lieving herself queen, tho in reality she is
only a constitutional queen, who appears be-
fore the public and makes speeches, but who
does not govern.
In fact, the intelligence which so docilely
submits to the violence of the emotional
states, does not get much satisfaction from
the will. The will is not fond of carrying out
the cold orders it receives from the intelli-
gence. As it is the organ of all power and
feeling, it wants emotional orders tinged with
passion. Pathology has shown us the case of
a man who was absolutely incapable of ma-
king a decision, eagerly leaping out of a car-
1 Nieol, ' ' De la connaissance de soi, ' ' Vol. I, Chap. 6.
[77]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
riage before any one else to help a woman
who had been run over. 1 This is what a
special volition can do.
With greater reason, a strong and power-
ful will should be sustained by sentiments
which are in themselves powerful, and if not
constantly, at least should be frequently ex-
cited. "Strong feeling, " says Mill, "is the
instrument and element of strong self-con-
trol; but it requires to be cultivated in that
direction. When it is, it forms not the nerves
of impulse only, but those also of self-con-
quest. History and experience prove that
the most passionate characters are the most
fantastically rigid in their feelings of duty,
when their passion has been trained to act in
that direction. ' ' 2 Let any one observe him-
self carefully and he will see that apart from
the acts which have become automatic by
habit, all volition is preceded by a wave of
emotion, an effective perception of the act
to be accomplished. We have just seen that
the idea of the work which we had on hand
lEibot, "Maladie de la volonte," loc. cit., p. 48 and
52 note. F. Alcan.
2 Mill, "The Subjection of Women"; Kibot, "Maladies
de la volonte," 117, 118, 169.
[78]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
was not enough to make us spring out of
bed, while the feeling of shame at being
caught in bed, after announcing that we made
a practise of getting up at dawn, was suf-
ficiently moving to make us hurry into our
clothing. Also a feeling that some one has
done us an injustice will drive us to protest
that we were not to blame, etc.
Moreover, the rather irrational kind of edu-
cation that is given to the children of the
present day is founded in part on a vague
perception of the truth. The system of re-
wards and punishments rests on the confused
belief that the emotions alone are able to stir
the will into action. The children in whom
sensibility is at a very low level are exceed-
ingly difficult to educate in the matter of the
will, and therefore in all directions. "It must
be acknowledged that of all the trials of edu-
cation none is to be compared with that of
trying to bring up children who lack sensi-
bility, their thoughts are mere distractions.
They hear everything and they feel noth-
ing/' 1
If we look upon social bodies and their
iFenelon, "Education des filles," Chap. 4.
[79]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
wills as the magnification of what goes on
among individuals, we shall see very clearly
that ideas lead people only indirectly, and
with the help of sentiments. "The advent of
an idea," says Micheles, "is not so much
the first appearance of it as a formula, as
it is the moment when it really begins to de-
velop, when, impregnated by the force of
the heart and nurtured in the powerful
warmth of love, it bears fruit for the
world." 1 Spencer maintains with good
reason that the world is led by the emo-
tions. Stuart Mill objects to this. 2 "Be-
cause," he says, "it was not human emo-
tions and passions which discovered the
movement of the earth." Assuredly not.
But this discovery has depended for its re-
sults on very powerful sentiments, without
which it would have had no influence on
human conduct. Such an idea springs up
in the mind of a Pascal or a Spinoza. In
the case of the latter, especially his feeling
of the utter insignificance of our globe in the
universe, with the resulting feeling of our
1 "Les Femmes de la Revolution," 1854, p. 321.
2 "Aug. Comte et le Positi^isme, ' ' p. 100 seq. Trans.
Clemenceau F. Alcan.
[80] N
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
own non-entity, so profoundly affected him,
that no one can read his books intimately
without experiencing to some degree, a feel-
ing of sublime calm in the presence of the
eternal verities. But it could hardly be
said that this discovery had produced prac-
tical effects only upon meditative philoso-
phers, because they alone have been aroused
to deep emotions. The will of a nation, or of a
political party, is one of its resulting affect-
ive stages (its daily interests, fears, sympa-
thies, etc.). It must be admitted that abstract
ideas are not very efficacious in leading a
people. It is not necessary to do more than
to call our readers' attention to this point.
They will find numerous illustrations in his-
tory of the feeble effect of abstract ideas as
contrasted with the power of emotions.
They will distinguish between pure ideas
and emotions, and see how far suffering,
anger, fear, and hope have helped to feed the
flame of patriotism which burns in all of us.
As for individual examples, the most casual
glance at the "comedy of life" will furnish
them by the dozens. In addition to the illus-
trations quoted at the beginning of this
[81]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
chapter, they will note how the very pious
who would not dream of neglecting a church
service, will tear their "friends' ' repu-
tations to pieces. They will see political
men parading their philanthropy, when they
would recoil with disgust from the idea
of visiting stuffy garrets and coming in con-
tact with the unclean and vulgar poor. They
will be perfectly paralyzed at certain dis-
turbances in their own consciences provoked
by sensuality, and they will stand aghast at
the ignoble ideas, which a secretion accumu-
lated in the body is capable of exciting in a
mind which as a rule is under perfect con-
trol. As a result of this feeling of helpless-
ness they are driven to the idea of sacrificing
absolutely, not only their own existence, but
even that self-esteem which can produce a
profound religious sentiment.
They impress upon their minds the truth
of the saying in the "Imitation of Christ, "
qui amat non laborat. For when one loves,
all work is easy and delightful. They will see
how lightly the maternal passion will over-
throw ideas of honor and patriotism. "Let
him live ! I care not if he be disgraced ! Only
[82]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
let him live!" And they will also see an in-
verse phenomenon in the ardent patriotism
of a Cornelia, and realize that the most
powerful emotions can be successfully
opposed by secondary and artificially created
emotions. This example proves the possi-
bility of uprooting the deepest instinctive
sentiments. After glancing at such cases,
however rapidly, no one could refuse to ad-
mit the complete power of the affective, or
emotional, states over the will.
Unfortunately, if the emotional side of our
nature is decidedly the stronger in our psy-
chological life, our power over it is apt to be
weak. And what is more serious, an ex-
amination of facts convinces us not only that
this weakness is real, but that it could not be
otherwise. This helplessness is, in fact, a
result of nature as well as a sentiment.
We have shown elsewhere that all com-
munications with the outer world must neces-
sarily be through the action of our muscles :
if no muscles, then no external expression.
Therefor all impulse coming from without,
by whatsoever channel, has the power of
provoking a response from the being who
[83]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
receives it. A muscular response of course
is understood. External impressions are
extremely different; hence the wide range of
muscular adjustments. But under what-
ever form a muscular action takes place, it
makes necessary an expenditure of energy.
Nature has ingeniously provided for this
expenditure. When an impression strikes
the senses, the heart suddenly begins to beat
more rapidly, the respiration is accelerated,
and all the functions of nutrition are, as it
were, touched up with a whip. This instan-
taneous physiological flutter is what really
constituted an emotion. The emotion is only
strong in proportion as this flutter or quick-
ening is strong, and if it is lacking, the
emotion is also lacking. Now this flutter is
automatic, and, what is more, it is almost
wholly beyond the control of our will, which
is very annoying to us, as masters of our-
selves. 1
We can neither stop, nor even directly
modify, our heart beats. We can not calm a
spasm of terror by preventing the semi-
1 ' ' Eevue philosophique, ' ' May, 1890. ' ' Sensation, plaisir
et douleur," F. Alcan.
[84]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
paralysis of the intestines. No one can be
more deeply imprest than we ourselves with
the idea that the men who are masters of
themselves are extremely rare, and that
liberty is the recompense of prolonged
efforts which few people have the courage
to attempt. The result is, that nearly all
men are slaves to the law of c[g termini am.
and are guided by their vanity and their
irritable impulses. And in consequence, as
Nicole has said, they are in the great ma-
jority of instances " marionettes " which one
can not but pity.
However basely they may treat one, the
only truly philosophical attitude one can
adopt toward them is that of calm, superior
serenity. Let Alceste, who believes in free
will, storm and rage without accomplishing
anything by it, for that is the law of nature,
but give us the smiling tranquil attitude of
Philinte.
Altho within my anger burns the same
As yours in you, yet no one sees the flame.
But none the less I look with like disgust,
On selfish men who show themselves unjust,
As on malicious apes or beasts of prey,
Or greedy vultures hovering o 'er the fray.
[85]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
This theoretically is what the attitude of
the thinker should be. If he must avenge
himself, let him do so calmly. But, properly
speaking, the truly wise man does not seek
vengeance. He only tries to protect his future
by correcting those who disturb his mental
poise, in such a way that henceforth they
will understand that it is better to leave
him in peace. Instead of this lofty calm,
what do we behold? Our self-esteem is
wounded or some malicious gossip is brought
to us, and immediately, in spite of ourselves,
we have a physiological reaction. Our heart
begins to beat irregularly and convulsively.
It behaves as if its action were ruined. Its
contractions are imperfect, spasmodic and
painful. The blood is sent rushing to the
brain in violent jerks, congesting that deli-
cate organ and starting up a torrent of
violent thoughts, visions of vengeance, and
absurd, exaggerated impractical ideas. Our
philosophy looks on helplessly at this wholly
animal outbreak of passion, which it disap-
proves of and deplores. Why this helpless-
ness? Simply because our emotions have
invariably an antecedent visceral disturb-
[86]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
ance over which our wills have no control.
And not being able to moderate this organic
disturbance, we can not prevent its reaction
from invading our consciousness and being
translated into psychological terms.
Is it necessary to multiply examples f Does
not what we call our sensibility, or emotion,
furnish us with crucial proof of the organic
cause of physical disturbances? Does not
our transitory rage, as well as our auto-
matism of ideas, cease as soon as the phys-
iological cause ceases? It is necessary to
refer again to the example of fear we have
just analyzed? Is it not perfectly clear
that we must be without control over our
emotions because their underlying causes,
being physiological in nature, are beyond
our control?
Let me analyze a personal experience,
which will plainly show how unequal the con-
flict is, when our thoughts try to struggle
with our viscera. One day word was brought
to me that my child, who had started out in
the morning to make a visit, had not reached
the house of the friend who expected him.
My heart immediately started to beat more
[87]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
quickly. But I began to reason with myself,
and at once thought of a plausible excuse for
his non-appearance. All the same, my ex-
treme anxiety over the circumstance and the
idea suggested by, I do not know whom, that
the child might have gone to play by the
edge of a very deep and rapid stream near
the house, succeeded in upsetting me. Al-
tho I immediately realized that the horri-
ble possibility was extremely improbable,
nevertheless the physiological agitation of
which we have spoken became extreme. My
heart beat as tho it would burst. I had a
painful bristling sensation on my scalp as
tho my hair were standing up on end. My
hands trembled and the wildest ideas ran
through my brain, in spite of all my efforts
to chase away my fears, which my judgment
told me were unreasonable. The child was
found after a half -hour search, but my heart
still continued to beat violently. The curious
thing was that this agitation, which I had
so earnestly tried to ignore, feeling, as
it were, frustrated of its end, seemed de-
termined to find expression, and drove me
(for the material workings of anger and
[88]
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
anxiety are obviously the same) to make a
scene with the poor servant, who could not
help what had happened. All at once I stopt
short, struck by the expression of grief on
the poor girl's face, and I decided to let the
tempest die down of itself, which, however,
took some time.
Each one of us can make similar observa-
tions upon himself, and each one will arrive
at the same doleful conclusion, that we can
have no direct power over our emotions.
We seem to be driven into a corner. The
task of mastering self is evidently an im-
possible one. The title of this book is a
snare, and the education of self is a delusion.
On the one hand, I can control only my
thoughts. The intelligent use of determin-
ism makes me free and allows me to make
use of the laws of association of ideas. But
the idea is a helpless thing. It has only a
mock power over the brute forces against
which we must struggle.
On the other hand, if the emotions are so
strong in us; if they domineer in their own
fashion over our perceptions, memories,
judgments, and reasonings, and if the fiercer
tm
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
emotions even annihilate the tenderer ones;
if, in a word, they exercise almost unlimited
despotism, they will remain tyrants to the
end, and will never take orders from our
reason or bow to our will. The onfy re-
sources with which we are bountifully sup-
plied are resources which we can not use.
The constitution which rules our psycholog-
ical life bestows the greater power upon the
undisciplined and ungovernable serf. Our
intellectual powers are powers only in name.
They are allowed a voice in consultation, but
not in the deliberative body.
There seems nothing else to do except to
throw down our lance and shield in despair
and leave the field of combat; to accept our
defeat meekly and to take refuge in fatal-
ism, which at least will furnish us with con-
solation for our weaknesses, laziness and
cowardice.
Fortunately, the position is not quite so
desperate as one might be tempted to be-
lieve. The strength which the intellect does
not possess may be given to it by a very
potent factor which we have not yet men-
tioned. What the great liberating power
THE EMOTIONAL STATES IN THE WILL
can not actually accomplish of itself, time in
the long run will accord. The freedom which
can not be achieved immediately can be
brought about by stratagem and by indirect
measures.
But before setting forth the method by
which we may free ourselves, it would be as
well not to overlook any of our resources,
and to find out whether, possessing little or
no control over the essential in our emotional
states, we could not do something to influence
the secondary elements of the emotions.
We have no direct psychological means of
controlling any of the essentially physio-
logical material which includes the majority
of the organs, and chiefly the heart, which
are not under the control of the will. Our
only methods of affecting them is from the
outside, and are therapeutic measures. A
violent fit of temper could be calmed by
taking a little digitalis, which has the power
of regulating the heart-beats.
One can stop the most violent sexual ex-
citement by the use of anod^es. One can
overcome laziness, either physical or mental
torpor, by taking coffee. But this beverage
[91]
THE EDUCATION OF THE WILL
quickens the heart-beats and gives them a
spasmodic action, and predisposes many
people to nervous irritability. In a great
many nervous people coffee causes dyspnosa
and a sensation of constriction and trembling
of the limbs. It also has a tendency to make
them feel deprest and anxious without
sufficient cause, and even to be subject to
unreasonable terrors.
But such means of treatment are soon
summed up, and all taken together are
hardly worth considering in the effect they
would have in giving us direct control over
the emotions.
This conclusion, however, does not apply in
at all the same way to anything pertaining to
the emotions that find their expressi
