Chapter 12

THE MANAGEMENT OF CHARACTER

A sound judgment of our own characters essential to moral improvement 235 Analogies between character and taste 236 The strongest desire generally prevails, but desires may be modified 238 Passions and habits 239 Exaggerated regard for the future.--A happy childhood 239 Choice of pleasures.--Athletic games 240 The intellectual pleasures 242 Their tendency to enhance other pleasures.--Importance of specialisation 243 And of judicious selection 243 Education may act specially on the desires or on the will 245 Modern education and tendencies of the former kind 245 Old Catholic training mainly of the will.--Its effects 247 Anglo-Saxon types in the seventeenth century 248 Capriciousness of willpower--heroism often succumbs to vice 249 Courage--its varieties and inconsistencies 250 The circumstances of life the school of will.--Its place in character 251 Dangers of an early competence.--Choice of work 252 Choice of friends.--Effect of early friendship on character 254 Mastery of will over thoughts.--Its intellectual importance 255 Its importance in moral culture 255 Great difference among men in this respect 256 Means of governing thought 258 The dream power--its great place in life 258 Especially in the early stages of humanity 261 Moral safety valves--danger of inventing unreal crimes 262 Character of the English gentleman 266 Different ways of treating temptation 266