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 moment arrives.

One of the things we have to learn is to overcome the inertia of the physical body and many people are not really awake on the physical plane because they have not done so.  To a certain extent they are “dead” within the physical body for it is a condition much nearer death than that supposed death of one who no longer has the physical body.  The inert mass of physical matter in which such people are functioning leaves them only half alive until they have aroused themselves from its domination.  They remind one of the lines: 

     “Life is a mystery, death is a doubt,
      And some folks are dead
      While they’re walking about!”

This inertia of the physical body that so often renders people nearly useless is very largely a matter of habit and can be overcome to a surprising degree by simply using a little will-power.  Everybody is familiar with the fact that it is sometimes much easier to think and act than at other times.  But perhaps it is not so well known that the dull periods can invariably be overcome by an effort of the will and the physical body be made to do its proper work.