"
An English physician, Dr. Fothergill by name, wrote a number of years ago
about this struggle of wills, as he called it, but which is really a
struggle of psychic power. He says: "The conflict of will, the power to
command others, has been spoken of frequently. Yet what is this will-power
that influences others? What is it that makes us accept, and adopt too,
the advice of one person, while precisely the same advice from another has
been rejected? Is it the weight of force of will which insensibly
influences us; the force of will behind the advice? That is what it is!
The person who thus forces his or her advice upon us has no more power to
enforce it than others; but all the same we do as requested. We accept
from one what we reject from another. One person says of something
contemplated, 'Oh, but you must not,' yet we do it all the same, though
that person may be in a position to make us regret the rejection of that
counsel. Another person says, 'Oh, but you mustn't,' and we desist, though
we may, if so disposed, set this latter person's opinion at defiance with
impunity. It is not the fear of consequences, not of giving offense, which
determines the adaption of the latter person's advice, while it has been
rejected when given by the first. It depends upon the character or
will-power of the individual advising whether we accept the advice or
reject it.
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