THE WILL.
St. John, the Apostle, addressing those who have not yet passed the
age of adolescence, says in his first Epistles: _"I write unto you,
because ... you have overcome the wicked one."_ Then speaking to
those who have attained the age of manhood, he says: _"I write to
you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth
in you, and you have overcome the wicked one."_ Again, in the book
of Proverbs, chapter xxxi, the inspired writer speaks in the
following terms: "_who shall find a valiant woman? The price of her
is as of things brought from afar off, and from the uttermost coasts ...
She hath put out her hand to strong things ... strength and
beauty are her clothing; and she shall laugh in the latter day, she
hath opened her mouth to wisdom and the law of clemency is on her
tongue.... Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that
feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her
hands; and let her works praise her in the gates._"
Thus, according to Holy Writ, fortitude or strength is the portion
of youth, which is manifested by the victories of the will over the
enemy of our salvation. This valor is regarded by the sacred writer
as one of the finest qualities with which woman can be adorned, since
she owes to it all her true success and glory. Now what is this
precious quality? In what faculty of the soul does it reside? What
are the signs by which its presence is made manifest? What is the end
to which it tends? What are the rewards that crown its victories?
These are questions of deep interest, and the importance attached to
a knowledge of their solution cannot be too great.
In the first place we shall begin by stating that the seat of valor
is found in the will. To be valiant consists in willing intensely
what is painful to nature, accomplishing what is proposed with energy
and perseverance. I have often treated this subject, but it is so
inexhaustible that it always seems new. Its importance grows with
time, and now-a-days it cannot be insisted on too much, nor can there
be too much attention paid to it by those who wish to preserve in
this world the integrity of their conscience and lead an
irreproachable life.
Alas it is painful to avow that this generous will is too rarely met
with. This noble faculty of the soul is made subservient to other
faculties which should be subject to and directed by it. The mind has
perhaps acquired greater vivacity and penetration. The imagination,
under the action of a constant change of images, and those sensations
which the activity of life multiplies so rapidly in our time, has
perhaps become richer and more varied. The heart, cherished while
young by the cares and caresses common to the paternal roof, has
perhaps more confidence and candor. But the will, what has become of
it, what has it gained by this development of all the powers of the
soul? Where is its place among them? It should be their ruler,
whereas it is made their slave; they have conspired its overthrow.
It is true that very often the enfeebling of this great faculty is
due to the excessive tenderness of those who have allowed us to
contract pernicious habits. Who is it that speaks to the child's
will? Who teaches him how to use that faculty and resist with energy
the caprices of his imagination, the passions of the heart, the
empire of the senses, the seductions of the world? These are duties
that the will is called on to discharge, and as long as man shall
live such duties will be of daily occurrence,--hence the will is
destined to be constantly called into action.
The will serves us when all the other faculties fail to act. When
the exhausted imagination sinks into a lethargic slumber; when the
worried heart loses all relish for everything; when the mind,
dreading the light of truth, gives itself over to error and
prejudice; when the smoke of passion blinds the intelligence and
suffocates the senses; it is then that the will, fashioned in the
school of pliant energy, seizing the reins with a firm and vigorous
grasp, snatches the imagination from its torpor by bringing it to
bear on objects capable of arousing it; it is then that the will
animates the heart with generous and noble sentiments, and applies
the mind to the consideration of truths which enlighten and fortify it.
There exists a strange abuse relative to the nature and essence of
the will. Very often, parents, blinded by a false prejudice, see with
pleasure, and admire in their children, stubbornness and obstinacy of
character; and, looking forward to their future with an air of pride,
they say: "That child will have a strong will." Deplorable error! Woe
to the parents who fall into it, and the children who are its object!
When the will is truly strong, far from being obstinate it is, on the
contrary, pliant and tractable. No human power can restore suppleness
to the arm which a convulsive paroxysm has stiffened, yet it does not
follow that this arm is stronger than when it was in a healthy
condition. The stiffness, far from increasing its strength, decidedly
weakens it. In like manner the will's strength does not lie in
stubborn obstinacy, but rather in that pliancy which enables it to
dispose itself as circumstances may require.
A stubborn character has nothing in common with this noble and
precious faculty of the soul. And, like all the others, this faculty
possesses two degrees of elevation; in the one it comes in direct
contact with the senses and, the external world; and in the other,
raised above all sensibility, it receives its light and movement from
on high.
The will, taken in its inferior part, is nothing else than that
appetite or blind instinct which we hold in common with the brute
creation; and by which animals are governed in their choice of some
things and their rejection of others. If the will, properly so
called, consisted in this blind instinct, man would be inferior to
the ass and the mule, whose attractions and repugnances are more
imperious than those of other animals. The will, as understood in the
true Christian sense of the term, acts in contradiction to this
brutal appetite; hence they alone have a strong will who can, when
duty and conscience require it, obey their voice with docility, in
spite of all instinctive opposition.
The education of the will, I admit, is a long and painful process.
We are taught at a dear rate how to _know_ and _judge_ things;
but we must learn at a dearer price how to _will_. The culture
of the mind is the least important and the easiest part of our
education, while the culture of the will is extremely important
and demands much time and labor; yet, through a most culpable
negligence, it is just the faculty that receives the least attention
and culture. Too many imagine that the training of the will may be
done at any time and, what is still more erroneous, that age,
experience and events will suffice to do this work. Hence we see
every day poor souls entering the scene of life without an educated
will, which alone is capable of reacting against the evils and trials
from which none in this world can escape. This is the cause of that
imbecility which renders the most precious qualities of mind and
heart useless; generating inconsistencies and uncertainties which, in
the moment of trial, deprive the heart of its energy and the mind of
all light, thus leaving the soul open to all the assaults of
misfortune.
We are obliged to chronicle a painful truth when we assert that the
culture of the will is sadly neglected in education in general, but
more especially so in that of women. There are even some so blind as
to think that a strong will in woman is a dangerous quality,
alleging, as a proof of their assertion, the puerile reason, that
since woman was made to obey she should find in another's will the
rule of her actions. But, we ask, if woman can have no will of her
own, how can she exercise the virtue of obedience, since that virtue
consists in bending the will to duty? And since, in her sphere, she
is constantly called on to practice obedience it is just the reason
why she should have a strong will.
Now if from a tender age she has not given due attention to this
precious faculty of her soul; if she has contracted the fatal habit
of acting without a purpose, without reflecting, through caprice,
following by a blind instinct the allurements that flatter the senses
and imagination; if she has not learned to conquer herself, to put
duty before pleasure, and the voice of conscience above that of the
passions and honor; how will she be able to live with a husband
capricious perhaps in his desires and stubborn in his will? How will
she be able to confront his exactions or cope with his rage? How will
she bear with the faults of her servants and of those with whom she
may be obliged to live? How will she, in her warnings and reproaches
be able to blend in a just proportion mildness and firmness, to
obtain the salutary effects which she desires?
The path of life is not strewn with flowers; all is not joy and
happiness here below. Woman is destined, as well as man, to meet with
days of sorrow and bitterness, when a firm, patient will must be her
only port of safety. To woman patience is, perhaps of all virtues,
the most necessary to sustain her in mental anxieties and various
other sufferings that are inevitable; and, since patience is a fruit
of the will, it follows that a morbid will cannot produce an enduring
patience, the deficiency of which must render her life almost
intolerable.
He that sails with the current and a favorable wind need not ply his
oars; but when there is question of going in the contrary direction,
what was at first a great advantage becomes now a double
disadvantage, and he can succeed only by strenuous efforts.
During the days of youthful glee you glide gaily down the river of
life, going with the current, favored by the breeze of hope, charmed
by varied and softly-changing scenes. But this time will soon have an
end: sorrow will embitter your joys ere the frost of age shall have
cooled the blood or chilled the imagination; very soon, in a few
years, perhaps, it will knock at the door of your soul; and you will
be obliged to give this inopportune visitor admittance, to remain
with you, perhaps, for the rest of your life. Among the young ladies
of your acquaintance are there not some who are unhappy? And can you,
without a voluntary illusion, convince yourself that youth is a
preservative against misfortune? Are you prepared to ward off the
intruder? If it wounds you how will you endure the pain? It is
imprudent to delay the acquisition of a particular branch of learning
until its practical use becomes necessary; and since it is while we
are hale and hearty that we should learn to die well, so it is while
prosperity smiles on us that we should learn to bear adversity. Learn
now, while young, to support all the vicissitudes of life; make
timely provision, not only against adversity, but also against
prosperity, which for many is the more dangerous of the two.
Prepare to meet not only those who will try your patience by their
unjust or troublesome doings, but also those whose affection
officiousness, and flattery, will perhaps exact from you a greater
exercise of virtue. Be on your guard, not only against others, but
also against yourself. Learn to bear with yourself, to suffer with
courage the inconstancy of your own humor, the nights of your
imagination, the impetuosity of your character, the violent and
inordinate movements of your heart. Accustom your will to wield the
scepter and resolutely to govern the passions, which are most
powerful auxiliaries for good or for evil,--for good when under the
complete control of the will, for evil when they are emancipated from
its sway, for then they become the vultures of life, and a torment of
the soul.
Never lose sight of the fact that you require a stronger will to
obey than to command, and that your condition, far from rendering
your will less necessary, shows, on the contrary, that it is
indispensable to you; unless, by indorsing that unjust and outrageous
judgment by which the world seeks to degrade the dignity of woman,
you force upon yourself the conviction that her will should count for
nothing either at home or abroad,--that she is destined to be blindly
led by the caprices of others; unless you confound obedience with
servitude, and authorize the prejudices of those who pretend that
woman should have neither thought nor will of her own, but that
another is charged with thinking and willing for her, thus
exonerating her from all responsibility.
If this be your conviction, I ask: "Why do you read this book? Close
it, it is not written for you; because from the first page to the
last it constantly discloses to your view all the titles of your
glory and the grandeur of your dignity. Close your eyes to the light
of truth, shackle the will's liberty lest you may see and feel the
shame and humiliation of your sad condition; and, like a thing inert,
await in dumb silence until some trafficker may come and calculate
how much he will gain in fortune and pleasure by purchasing you!"
Behold the deplorable condition to which the pagan theories of the
world reduce woman! behold the degree of abjection to which she
herself descends when, losing sight of the light of faith, which
exposes the true nature of things, she suffers herself to be deceived
by the vain systems of a world worthy of God's anathemas, and
governed by the spirit of deception.
No, woman has not been created to be a slave; God has neither
destined nor consigned to such a humiliating state that half of
humanity from which He has chosen His mother, and which has been
favored with a holy reflection of the glory of Mary. God required a
positive act of woman's will in her co-operation in the work of our
redemption,--and to obtain it He did not hesitate to choose as His
ambassador, one of the brightest of His archangels. Judge from this
the respect and importance due to woman's will. Moreover, it is a
significant truth, sustained by a long experience, that the salvation
of a family, of a father, a brother, a son, a husband, is secured in
a great measure by the care and prayers, the firm and wise, yet mild
and prudent conduct of a Christian woman, deeply penetrated with the
profound sentiment of her dignity and the true importance of her
duties,--all of which depend upon a firm and patient will.