THE MASTER SPIRIT. The Master Spirit needeth none That cosmic power, Magnetic Will. POWER OF WILL. CHAPTER I. THE WILL AND ITS ACTION. T APPEARS in mere naked protoplasm as a self-determined contractility. In zoospores, spermatozoids, etc., it attains a variety of action. In animal and vegetal persons it occurs as a common function, controlling the general movements of the protoplasms in contact. With the appearance of nerve cells and muscles, its range both of excitation and of execution is vastly enlarged."-Van Norden. The human Will involves mysteries which have never been fathomed. As a "faculty" of mind it is, nevertheless, a familiar and practical reality. There are those who deny man's spiritual nature, but no one calls in question the existence of this power. While differences obtain among writers as to its source, its constitution, its functions, its limitations, its freedom, all concede that the Will itself is an actual part of the mind of man, and that its place and uses in our life are of transcendent impor tance. facts. Disagreements as to interpretations do not destroy The Will is sometimes defined as the "faculty conscious, and especially of deliberative action." Whether the word "conscious" is essential to the definition may be questioned. Some actions which are unconscious are, nevertheless, probably expressions of the Will; and some involuntary acts are certainly conscious. All voluntary acts are deliberative, for deliberation may proceed " with the swiftness of lightning," as the saying goes, but both deliberation and its attendant actions are not always conscious. A better definition of the Will, therefore, is "THE POWER OF SELF-DIRECTION." This power acts in conjunction with feeling and knowledge, but is not to be identified with them as a matter of definition. Nor ought it to be confounded with desire, nor with the moral sense. One may feel without willing, and one may will contrary to feeling. So the Will may proceed either with knowledge or in opposition thereto, or, indeed, in a manner indifferent. Oftentimes desires are experienced which are unaccompanied by acts of Will, and the moral sense frequently becomes the sole occasion of willing, or it is set aside by the Will, whatever the ethical dictates in the case. PRESENT DEFINITIONS. The Will is a way a person has of being and doing, by which itself and the body in which it dwells are directed. It is not the Will that wills, any more than it is the perceptive powers that perceive, or the faculty of imagination that pictures mental images. The Will is "the Soul Itself Exercising Self-direction." "By the term Will in the narrower sense," says Royce, one very commonly means so much of our mental life as involves the attentive guidance of our conduct." When person employs this instrumental power, it puts forth a Volition. A Volition is the willing power in action. |