and the reason, whatever be their cause or nature. If a man's mind has been long under proper discipline, after reflection he is able to recover from this disorder and to resume his former state. If he has not been under proper discipline when his powers of reason are thus assailed, he may do any thing however foolish or bad. A sound exercise of the faculty of the Will therefore requires discipline, in order that it may be corrected and maintained. A man must exercise his will and improve it by labour so as to make it conformable to nature and free. This exercise of the will and the improvement of it are a labour that never ends. A man should begin it as soon as he can. If the question is asked how a man must begin, who has never been trained by a parent or teacher to observe carefully his own conduct, to reflect, to determine, and then to act, I cannot tell. Perhaps a mere accident, some trifle which many persons would not notice, may be the beginning of a total change in a man's life, as in the case a of Polemon, who was a dissolute youth, and as he was by chance passing the lecture room of Xenocrates, he and bis drunken companions burst into the room. Polemon was so affected by the words of the excellent teacher, that he came out a different man, and at last succeeded Xenocrates in the school of the Academy (iii. c. 1). Folly and bad habits then may by reflection be altered into wisdom and a good course of life. If such a thing hap pens, and undoubtedly it has happened, it may be said that the origin of the change is not in a man's will, but in something external. Granted: a thing external has presented an appearance to a man, but the effect of the appearance would not be the same in all men, as we presume that it was not the same, as the story is told, in Polemon and his companions. One man in this case had a temper or disposition and a capacity to use his mental power and to profit by the words of Xenocrates. It may be said that
