in a strong moral
will, is the highest aim of education.

The _great problem_ for us to solve is: 1. How far can teaching
stimulate and develop such a will?

There is an apparent contradiction in saying that the _will_ is the
monarch of the mind, the power which must control and subject all the
other powers; and yet that it can be trained, educated, moulded, and
chiefly too by a proper cultivation of the other powers, _feeling_ and
_knowing_. Knowledge and feeling, while they are subject to the will,
still constitute its strength, just as the soldiers and officers of an
army are subject to a commander and yet make him powerful.

We shall first notice the dependence of the will upon the _knowing_
faculty. It is an old saying "that knowledge is power." But it is
power only as a strong will is able to convert knowledge into action.
Before the will can _decide_ to do any given act it must see its way
clearly. It must at least believe in the possibility. _In trying to
get across a stream_, for example, if one can not swim and there is no
bridge nor boat nor means of making one, the will can not act. It is
helpless. The will must be shown the way to its aims or they are
impossible. The more clear and distinct our knowledge, the better we
can lay our plans and _will_ to carry them out. It would be impossible
for one of us _to will_ to run a steam engine from Chicago to St. Paul
to-day. We don't know how, and we should not be permitted to try. In
every field of action we must have knowledge, and clear knowledge,
before the will can act to good advantage. It is only knowledge, or at
least faith in the possibility of accomplishing an undertaking, that
opens the way to will. Much successful _experience_ in any line of
work brings increasing confidence and the will is greatly strengthened,
because one knows that certain actions are possible. The simple
acquisition of facts therefore, the increase of knowledge so long as it
is well digested, makes it possible for the will to act with greater
energy in various directions. The more clear this knowledge is, the
more thoroughly it is cemented, together in its parts and subject to
control, the greater and more effective can be the will action. All
the knowledge we may acquire can be used by the will in planning and
carrying out its purposes. Knowledge, therefore, derived from all
sources, is a _means_ used by the will, and increases the possibilities
of its action.