“I will.”

“There are no two words in the English language which stand out in bolder relief, like kings upon a checker-board, to so great an extent as the words ‘I will.’  There is strength, depth and solidity, decision, confidence and power, determination, vigor and individuality, in the round, ringing tone which characterizes its delivery.  It talks to you of triumph over difficulties, of victory in the face of discouragement, of will to promise and strength to perform, of lofty and daring enterprise, of unfettered aspirations, and of the thousand and one solid impulses by which man masters impediments in the way of progression.”

As one has well said:  “He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed, distanced, crushed; he who ceases to become greater, becomes smaller; he who leaves off gives up; the stationary is the beginning of the end—­it precedes death; to live is to achieve, to will without ceasing.”

     Be thou a hero; let thy might
       Tramp on eternal snows its way,
     And through the ebon walls of night,
       Hew down a passage unto day.
     Park Benjamin.

CHAPTER II.

THE RULERS OF DESTINY.

     There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
       Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
       The firm resolve of a determined soul. 
     Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
     All things give way before it soon or late. 
       What obstacle can stay the mighty force
       Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
     Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait? 
       Each well-born soul must win what it deserves. 
     Let the fool prate of luck.  The fortunate
       Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
       Whose slightest action or inaction serves
      The one great aim.
     Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

There is always room for a man of force.—­Emerson.

The king is the man who can.—­Carlyle.

A strong, defiant purpose is many-handed, and lays hold of whatever is near that can serve it; it has a magnetic power that draws to itself whatever is kindred.—­T.T.  Munger.

What is will-power, looked at in a large way, but energy of character?  Energy of will, self-originating force, is the soul of every great character.  Where it is, there is life; where it is not, there is faintness, helplessness, and despondency.  “Let it be your first study to teach the world that you are not wood and straw; that there is some iron in you.”  Men who have left their mark upon the world have been men of great and prompt decision.  The achievements of will-power are almost beyond computation.  Scarcely anything seems impossible to the man who can will strongly enough and long enough.  One talent with a will behind it will accomplish more than ten without it, as a thimbleful of powder in a rifle, the bore of whose barrel will give it direction, will do greater execution than a carload burned in the open air.