Nor must we forget to take into account both the negative and the positive
functions of the will. Many there are who think of the will chiefly in its negative
use, as a kind of a check or barrier to save us from doing certain things. That this
is an important function cannot be denied. But the positive is the higher function.
There are many men and women who are able to resist evil, but able to do little
good. They are good enough, but not good for much. They lack the power of
effort and self-compulsion to hold them up to the high standards and stern
endeavor necessary to save them from inferiority or mediocrity. It is almost
certain that for most who read these words the greatest test of their will power
will be in the positive instead of the negative direction.
Objective Tests a False Measure of Will Power.—The actual amount of
volition exercised in making a decision cannot be measured by objective results.
The fact that you follow the pathway of duty, while I falter and finally drift into
the byways of pleasure, is not certain evidence that you have put forth the
greater power of will. In the first place, the allurements which led me astray may
have had no charms for you. Furthermore, you may have so formed the habit of
pursuing the pathway of duty when the two paths opened before you, that your
well-trained feet unerringly led you into the narrow way without a struggle. Of
course you are on safer ground than I, and on ground that we should all seek to
attain. But, nevertheless, I, although I fell when I should have stood, may have
been fighting a battle and manifesting a power of resistance of which you, under
similar temptation, would have been incapable. The only point from which a
conflict of motives can be safely judged is that of the soul which is engaged in
the struggle.
4. VOLITIONAL TYPES
Several fairly well-marked volitional types may be discovered. It is, of course, to
be understood that these types all grade by insensible degrees into each other,
and that extreme types are the exception rather than the rule.
The Impulsive Type.—The impulsive type of will goes along with a nervous
organism of the hair-trigger kind. The brain is in a state of highly unstable
equilibrium, and a relatively slight current serves to set off the motor centers.
Action follows before there is time for a counteracting current to intervene.
Putting it in mental terms, we act on an idea which presents itself before an
opposing one has opportunity to enter the mind. Hence the action is largely or
wholly ideo-motor and but slightly or not at all deliberate. It is this type of will