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.
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