Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1917 — The Will to Act [ARTICLE]

The Will to Act

Two words are very significant in life —situation and action. The sphere in which a man is situated, or what is called "environment,” will largely determine what he is to be, but no amount of “situation” will of itself precipitate vigorous action of a noble kind. Manly men are made by the right sort of reaction against environment. Whatever may be claimed for heredity and association, a certain amount of free play must be allowed to the individual, who in his turn, by strenuous and selective, action, contributes to the formation in future of a new heredity. No progress in human affairs would be at all possible were life simply to the last factor a recapitulation of previous lives. It is part of our heritage as sons of God that we can build upon the fathers and yet be different from them —that we cap inherit the past and predetermine the future. It is true that some men are circumstantially situated more favorably for success than are others; but the man who has in him the will to act, even though he be a poor and physically weak Paul, will in the end, in spite of beatings and shipwrecks oft, win out among the best.