end. The really executive man is
a man who ponders his ends, who makes his ideas of the results of his
actions as clear and full as possible. The people we called weak-willed
or self-indulgent always deceive themselves as to the consequences of
their acts. They pick out some feature which is agreeable and neglect
all attendant circumstances. When they begin to act, the disagreeable
results they ignored begin to show themselves. They are discouraged,
or complain of being thwarted in their good purpose by a hard fate, and
shift to some other line of action. That the primary difference between
strong and feeble volition is intellectual, consisting in the degree
of persistent firmness and fullness with which consequences are thought
out, cannot be over-emphasized.

(ii) There is, of course, such a thing as a speculative tracing out
of results. Ends are then foreseen, but they do not lay deep hold of
a person. They are something to look at and for curiosity to play
with rather than something to achieve. There is no such thing as
over-intellectuality, but there is such a thing as a one-sided
intellectuality. A person "takes it out" as we say in considering the
consequences of proposed lines of action. A certain flabbiness of fiber
prevents the contemplated object from gripping him and engaging him in
action. And most persons are naturally diverted from a proposed course
of action by unusual, unforeseen obstacles, or by presentation of
inducements to an action that is directly more agreeable.

A person who is trained to consider his actions, to undertake them
deliberately, is in so far forth disciplined. Add to this ability
a power to endure in an intelligently chosen course in face of
distraction, confusion, and difficulty, and you have the essence of
discipline. Discipline means power at command; mastery of the resources
available for carrying through the action undertaken. To know what one
is to do and to move to do it promptly and by use of the requisite means
is to be disciplined, whether we are thinking of an army or a mind.
Discipline is positive. To cow the spirit, to subdue inclination, to
compel obedience, to mortify the flesh, to make a subordinate perform an
uncongenial task--these things are or are not disciplinary according as
they do or do not tend to the development of power to recognize what one
is about and to persistence in accomplishment.

It is hardly necessary to press the point that interest and discip