Part 14 (1/2)

When the child chooses fro a considerable nuo and take it froive it up to a companion; when he waits until one of the pieces of the apparatus he wishes to use is laid aside by the child who has it in his hand at theti the mistakes which the didactic material reveals to him; when, in the silence-exercise, he retains all his i when his name is called, controls thesea noise with his feet or knocking against the furniture, he performs so many acts of the ”will” It may be said that in him the exercise of the will is continuous; nay, that the factor which really acts and persists a his aptitudes is the will, which is built up on the internal fundaed attention

Let us analyze some of the co-efficients of will

The whole external expression of the will is contained in _movement_: whatever action man performs, whether he walks, works, speaks or writes, opens his eyes to look, or closes them to shut out a scene, he acts by ”motion” An act of the will may also be directed to the restriction of er; not to give way to the ies us to snatch a desirable object from the hand of another, are voluntary actions

Therefore the will is not a sient direction of movements

There can be no manifestation of the ithout coood action, but leaves it undone; he who desires to atone for an offense, but takes no step to do so; he who proposes to go out, to pay a call, or to write a letter, but goes no farther in the matter, does not accomplish an exercise of the will To think and to wish is not enough It is action which counts ”The way to hell is paved with good intentions”

The life of volition is the life of action Now all our actions represent a resultant of the forces of impulse and inhibition, and by constant repetition of actions this resultant may become almost habitual and unconscious Such is the case, for instance, with regard to all those customary actions, the sum of which constitute ”the behavior of a well-bred person” Our iht be to pay a certain visit, but we know that we , and we refrain; we -room, but a venerable person enters, and we rise to our feet; we are not much attracted by this lady, but nevertheless we also bow or shake her hand; the sweethbor helps herself is just the one we desired, but we are careful to give no sign of this All the movements of our body are not merely those dictated by impulse or weariness; they are the correct expression of e consider decorous Without impulses we could take no part in social life; on the other hand, without inhibitions we could not correct, direct, and utilize our impulses

This reciprocal equilibriued exercises, of _ancient habits_ within us; we no longer have any sense of effort in perforer require the support of reason and knowledge to accomplish them; these acts have almost become reflex And yet the acts in question are by no means reflex actions; it is not Nature but habit which produces all this We knoell how the person who has not been brought up to observe certain rules, but has been hastily instructed in the knowledge of theuilty of blunders and lapses, because he is obliged to ”perform” there and then all the necessary coordination of voluntary acts, and there and then direct theilant and immediate control of the consciousness; and such a perpetual effort cannot certainly couished ed efforts outside the consciousness, or at its extrein, and leaves the consciousness itself unencumbered to make new acquisitions and further efforts Thus we cease to consider as _evidences of will_ those habits in which we nevertheless see the consciousness, as it were, hanging over and watchful of each act, that it may accord with the perfect rule of an external code of manners An educated man who acts thus is merely a man _in himself_, merely a man of ”healthy rate the personality organized upon its adaptations, and induce ains to show the first symptoms of paranoia,

But he, on the other hand, who re more than a _normal man_ We will not venture to call him ”aput to the test, and the er possess a ”volitive value”

But the child ishis first trial of ar from that just described In comparison with the adult, he is an unbalanced creature, almost invariably the prey of his own impulses and sometimes subject to the most obstinate inhibitions The two opposite activities of the will have not yet combined to form the new personality The psychical ereat essential is that this ”combination,” this ”adaptation,” should take place and establish itself as a supporting girdle at the in of consciousness Hence it is necessary to induce active exercise as soon as possible, since this is essential to such a degree of development The aientleman,” but to induce hi about as soon as possible the reciprocal contact of impulses with inhibitions It is this ”construction” itself which is necessary, not the result which may be achieved externally by means of this construction

It is, in fact, merely a ether with other children, and practise the gymnastics of the will in the daily habits of life The child who is absorbed in some task, inhibits all movements which do not conduce to the acco the muscular coordinations of which he is capable, persists in theins to make such coordinations permanent This is a very differentway to uncoordinated iins to respect the work of others; when he waits patiently for the object he desires instead of snatching it fro against his co the table--then he is organizing his powers of volition, and bringing impulses and inhibitions into equilibrium Such an attitude prepares the way for the habits of social life It would be i children motionless, seated side by side; under such conditions ”relations between children” cannot be established, and infantile social life does not develop

It is by es each one to adapt his own limits to the limits of others, that social ”habits” ht to be done will never bring about the construction of the will; to raceful movements, it will not suffice to inculcate ”ideas of politeness” and of ”rights and duties” If this were so, it would suffice to give a minute description of thethe piano, to enable an attentive pupil to execute a sonata by Beethoven In all such matters the ”formation” is the essential factor; the powers of will are established by exercise

In education, it is of very great value to organize all the mechanise Just as _ymnastics_ of children, is necessary, because, as is well known,the variety of moveous systeymnastics is necessary to maintain the activity of the psychical life

The uneducated organism may be easily directed towards subsequent deficiencies; he who is weak of muscle is inclined to remain motionless, and so to perish, when an action is necessary to overcoer Thus the child who is weak of will, who is ”hypobulic” or ”abulic,” will readily adapt himself to a school where all the children are kept seated andto listen Many children of this kind, however, end in the hospital for nervous disorders and have the following notes on their school reports: ”Conduct excellent; no progress in studies” Of such children some teachers confine theood,” and by this they tend to protect them from any intervention, and leave theulf them like a quicksand Other children, whose natural i, are noted hty” If we enquire into the nature of their naughtiness, we shall be told almost invariably that ”they will never keep still” These turbulent spirits are further stigressions are nearly always of this kind: they try by every possible means to rouse their companions from their quiescence, and draw them into an association

There are also children in whom the inhibitory powers are dominant; their timidity is extreme: they sometimes seem as if they cannot make up their minds to answer a question; they will do so after some external stimulus, but in a very low voice, and will then burst into tears

The necessary gymnastic in all these three cases is free action The constant and interesting movement of others is the best of incitements to the abulic; motion directed into the channel of orderly exercise develops the inhibitory powers of the too impulsive child, and the child who is too much in subjection to his inhibitory powers, when liberated froe of surveillance, and free to act privately on his own initiative--in other words, when he is removed from all external inducements to exercise inhibition, is able to find an equilibrium between the two opposite volitional forces This is indeed the way of salvation for all th that wherein the strong attain perfection

The want of balance as between i fact in pathology; it is further_normal_ persons, just as frequently as deficiencies of education are to be met with in the external social sphere

Iainst other htless acts and nervous outbursts which have sad consequences to themselves! For the most part the normal impulsive person harms hi his talents to fruition; he suffers from a conscious servitude, as froht perhaps have been saved

He who is pathologically the victim of his oers of inhibition is certainly the more unhappy sufferer; he res to move A thousand impulses which can find no outlet torture the soul which aspires to art, to work; and eloquent speech on his own misfortunes would fain flow from his lips to implore help from a physician, or comfort from some lofty soul; but his lips are sealed He feels the horrible oppression of one buried alive But howof the saht to have come forward and shown their worth, but they were unable to do so A thousand tiht have straightened out a difficult situation; but the heart has closed and the lips have reed to speak to some noble soul ould have understood them, illuminated and comforted them! But when they have been face to face with this person, they have been unable to speak a word The longed-for individual encouraged theed them to express themselves, but the sole response to the invitation was an internal anguish Speak! Speak! said impulse in the depths of their consciousness; but inhibition was inexorable as a resistless material force

It is in the education of the will by means of free exercises wherein the impulses balance the inhibitions that the cure of such subjects ht be found, provided such a cure could be undertaken at the age when the will is in process of formation

Such an equilibriuin of consciousness, which makes a man of the world ”correct” in his conduct, is by no means that which constitutes the ”person of will”

It has been said above that the consciousness remains free for other voluntary requireht nevertheless be a person ”without will” and ”without character,”

although she orous mechanisms productive of a mechanical will directed solely to external objects

There is a voluntary fundamental quality upon which not only are the superficial relations between man and man based, but on which the very edifice of society is erected This quality is known as ”continuity”