ing
before in fixing upon that hour! Whereupon he reconsiders the matter
and makes it seven; and when that time arrives he generously extends
it to eight o'clock. The hour, of course, is unimportant. But whatever
may have been the hour that was previously determined upon the keeping
of that determination is of the greatest importance and the failure to
put the resolution into effect is evidence of the possession of a weak
will.

Now all this proves that such persons have very little real will
power, for they permit the desire for trifling bodily comfort to set
their plans aside. Such persons are still slaves to the physical body
and weakly permit it to upset carefully outlined programs. They are
not yet ready for good work in occult development, where real success
can come only to those who have steadfast strength of purpose.

People who fail to assert the will and bring the body into complete
subjection probably little realize what a price they pay for a
trifling physical pleasure; for until we voluntarily take the right
course we have not escaped the evolutionary necessity of compulsion
and may reasonably expect sooner or later to be thrown into an
environment that will apply the stimulus we still need to arouse the
will. It may be unpleasant while it is occurring, but what better
fortune could befall an indolent man than to find himself in
circumstances where his poverty or other necessity compels him to
subordinate bodily comfort to the reign of the will? Nature provides
the lessons we require. We may wisely co-operate with her and thus
escape the sting. But so long as we need the lesson we may be quite
sure that it awaits us.

All the business activities of the world are developing the will.
Through them will and desire work together in evolving latent powers.
Desire arouses will power. A man desires wealth and the desire plunges
him into business activities and stimulates the will by which he
overcomes all the difficulties that lie in his way. Ardent desire for
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 d