d as
slow in its effects as the training of a muscle is slow. Perhaps we are
unconsciously following, as a race, the law that Froebel has given for
the beginnings of individual education, which bids us lead from the
"outer to the inner," from the known to the unknown. There is so much
more to be done to make methods of muscular training perfect, that we
have not yet come to appreciate the necessity for a systematic training
of the will. Every individual, however, who recognizes the need of such
training and works accordingly, is doing his part to hasten a more
intelligent use of the will by humanity in general.

When muscles are trained abnormally their development weakens, instead
of strengthening, the whole system. Great muscular strength is often
deceptive in the appearance of power that it gives; it often
effectually hides, under a strong exterior, a process of degeneration
which is going on within, and it is not uncommon for an athlete to die
of heart disease or pulmonary consumption.

This is exactly analogous to the frequently deceptive appearance of
great strength of will. The will is trained abnormally when it is used
only in the direction of personal desire, and the undermining effect
upon the character in this case is worse than the weakening result upon
the body in the case of abnormal muscular development. A person who is
persistently strong in having his own way may be found inconsistently
weak when he is thwarted in his own way. This weakness is seldom
evident to the general public, because a man with a strong will to
accomplish his own ends is quick to detect and hide any appearance of
weakness, when he knows that it will interfere with whatever he means
to do. The weakness, however, is none the less certainly there, and is
often oppressively evident to those from whom he feels that he has
nothing to gain.

When the will is truly trained to its best strength, it is trained to
obey; not to obey persons or arbitrary ideas, but to obey laws of life
which are as fixed and true in their orderly power, as the natural laws
which keep the suns and planets in their appointed spheres. There is no
one who, after a little serious reflection, may not be quite certain of
two or three fixed laws, and as we obey the laws we know, we find that
we discover more.

To obey truly we must use our wills to yield as well as to act. Often
the greatest strength is gained through persistent yielding, for to
yield entirely is