November 7

But I will teach you the good and the right way: only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart.—I SAM. xii, 23, 24.

We drive the furrow with the share of faith

Through the waste fields of life, and our own hands

Sow thick the seeds that spring to weeds or flowers;

And never strong necessity not fate

Trammels the soul that firmly says "I will!"

ALICE CARY.

The body sins not; 'tis the will

That makes the action good or ill.

ROBERT HERRICK.

Strength of will is the quality most needing cultivation in mankind. Will is the central force which gives strength and greatness to character. We overestimate the value of talent because it dazzles us, and we are apt to underrate the importance of will, because its works are less shining. Talent gracefully adorns life, but it is will which carries us victoriously through the struggle. Intellect is the torch which lights us on our way, will the strong arm which rough hews the path for us. . . . In this world there cannot be virtue without strong will; the weak "know the right, and yet the wrong pursue." . . . Knowledge, after all, is not the greatest thing in life; it is not the "be-all and the end-all here." Life is not science. The light of intellect is truly a precious light, but its aim and end is simply to shine. The moral nature of man is more sacred in my eyes than his intellectual nature. I know they cannot be divorced; that without intelligence we should be brutes; but it is the tendency of our gaping, wondering dispositions to give preeminence to those faculties which most astonish us. Strength of character seldom, if ever, astonishes; goodness, loving-kindness, and quiet self-sacrifice are worth all the talents in the world.

GEORGE HENRY LEWES.