Chapter XII

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