hild to master and
control these evil dispositions. Not only is it possible to cultivate
those feelings which we may summarize as the love of the virtues and
develop a dislike and turning away from vices, but this work of
cultivating the feelings may be carried on so systematically that great
_habits_ of feeling are formed, and these habits become the very
strongholds of character. They are the forces acting upon the will and
guiding its choice.

It is _freedom of the will_ to chose the best that we are after. We
desire to limit the choice of the will if possible to good things. We
desire to make the character so strong and so noble and consistent in
its desires that it will not be strongly tempted by evil. The will in
the end, while it controls all the life and action, is itself under the
guidance of those _habits_ of thought and feeling that have been
gradually formed. Sully says, "Thus it is feeling that ultimately
supplies the stimulus or force to volition and intellect which guides
or illumines it."

A study of the will in its relation to knowledge and feeling reveals
that the training and development of the will depend upon _exercise_
and upon _instruction_. There are two ways of exercising will power.
First, by requiring it to obey authority promptly and to control the
body and the mind at the direction of another. The discipline of a
school may exert a strong influence upon pupils in teaching them
concentration and will power under the direction of another.
Especially is this true in lower grades. Children in the first grade
have but little power or habit of concentrating the attention. The
will of the teacher, combined with her tact, must aid in developing the
energies of the will in these little ones. The primary value of quick
obedience in school, of exact discipline in marching, rising, etc., is
twofold. It secures the necessary orderliness and it trains the will.
Even in higher and normal schools such a perfect discipline has a great
value in training to alertness and quickness of apprehension associated
with action.

Secondly, by the training of the mind to freedom of action, to
_self-activity_, to independence. As soon as children begin to develop
the power of thought and action their self-activity should be
encouraged. Even in the lowest grades the beginnings may be made. An
_aim_ may be set before them which they are to reach by their own
efforts. For example, let a class in the firs