"The first and best of victories," says Plato, "is for a man to conquer
himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most
shameful and vile."

Self-control is at the root of all the virtues. Let a man yield to his
impulses and passions, and from that moment he gives up his moral
freedom.

"Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasurable," says Walter
Scott, "and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever
issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer."

Stonewall Jackson, early in life, determined to conquer every weakness
he had, physical, mental, and moral. He held all of his powers with a
firm hand. To his great self-discipline and self-mastery he owed his
success. So determined was he to harden himself to the weather that he
could not be induced to wear an overcoat in winter. "I will not give
in to the cold," he said. For a year, on account of dyspepsia, he
lived on buttermilk and stale bread, and wore a wet shirt next his body
because his doctor advised it, although everybody else ridiculed the
idea. This was while he was professor at the Virginia Military
Institute. His doctor advised him to retire at nine o'clock; and, no
matter where he was, or who was present, he always sought his bed on
the minute. He adhered rigidly through life to this stern system of
discipline. Such self-training, such self-conquest, gives one great
power over others. It is equal to genius itself.

It is a good plan to form the habit of ranking our various qualities,
marking our strongest point one hundred and all the others in
proportion, in order to make the lowest mark more apparent, and
enabling us to try to raise or strengthen it. A man's industry, for
example, may be his strongest point, one hundred, his physical courage
may be fifty; his moral courage, seventy-five; his temper, twenty-five;
with but ten for self-control,--which, if he has strong appetites and
passions, will be likely to be the rock on which he will split. He
should strive in every way to raise it from one of the weakest
qualities to one of the strongest. It would take but two or three
minutes a day to rank ourselves in such a table by noting the exercise
of each faculty for the day. If you have worked hard and faithfully,
mark industry one hundred. If you have lost your temper, and, in
consequence, lost your self-control, and made a fool of yourself,
indicate it by a low mark. This will be an incentive to try to