an education arouses the will of the student and the awakened will
triumphs over poverty and all other barriers between him and the
coveted diploma. If a man stands at a lower point in evolution where
he has not the ambition for intellectual culture nor for fame nor for
wealth, but only the desire for shelter and food, still that primitive
desire forces him into action; and while his will power will be
evolved only in proportion to the strength of the desire that prompts
him, it must nevertheless grow. Instead of rising at a certain hour
because the will decrees it he may rise only because he knows his
livelihood depends upon it. But he is learning the same lesson--the
overcoming of the inertia of the physical body--albeit it is
compulsory instead of voluntary. But all this is unconscious
evolution. It is the long, slow, painful process. It is the only way
possible for those who are not wise enough to co-operate with nature
in her evolutionary work and thus rise above the necessity of
compulsion.

How, then, may we develop the will when it is so weak that we are
still the slaves of nature instead of the masters of destiny? Will
power, like any other faculty, may be cultivated and made strong. To
do this one may plan in advance what he will do under certain
circumstances and then carry out the program without evasion or
hesitation when the time arrives. His forethought will enable him to
do this if he does not undertake things too difficult at first. Let
him resolve to do at a certain hour some small thing which, in the
ordinary course of his duties, he sees is necessary but unpleasant;
and then firmly resolve in advance that exactly at the appointed time
he will do it. Thus fortified before the trial comes he will probably
go successfully through with it. After once deciding upon the time
there should be no postponement and not an instant's delay when the