In “Louis Lambert” Balzac describes certain forces, when they
take possession of strong personalities, as “rivers of will.”
There is an impetus in these potential men which sweeps away
all obstacles and rolls on with the momentum of a great stream.
In men of genius the same tireless activity, the same forceful
habit, are often found; nothing daunts them; nothing subdues
them.--_Christian Union._
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* * * * *
The late Lord Beaconsfield, in an address before the Literary
and Scientific Institute of London, in 1844, on his early life,
gave utterance to these impressive words:
“Man can be what he pleases. Every one of you can be exactly
what he designs to be. I have resolved to hold a certain
position, and if I live, I will.”
We do not know what that position was that Disraeli refers to,
but we do know that he attained to the highest position possible
to any man in England. He had much to contend with. He was of
a Jewish family, but by the remarkable power of his will he
ejected the Jew blood from his veins and pumped the blue blood
of England in. He climbed into the seat next to the throne of
the queen herself.
In contrast what a small conception some men have of their
opportunities and privileges.
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* * * * *
People will insist on living, sometimes, tho manifestly
moribund. In Dr. Elder’s life of Kane, you will find a case of
this sort, told by Dr. Kane himself. The captain of a ship was
dying of scurvy, but the crew mutinied, and he gave up dying for
the present to take care of them. An old lady in this city, near
her end, got a little vexed about a proposed change in her will;
made up her mind not to die just then; ordered a coach; was
driven twenty miles to the house of a relative, and lived four
years longer.--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
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See GREATNESS; MIND, THE HUMAN.