310 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



matter is that all stones thus placed have done as I expected, 

 and that I have not the slightest reason to suppose that any 

 stone will act differently, or to believe that it either is or is not 

 free to do as it likes. 



The reason why the animistic belief that everything is alive, which 

 once prevailed among all men, has passed out of the modern mind 

 is not that it has been proved untrue, but that we find no evidence 

 of its truth, and no value in its practical application. 



I do find evidence that I am free, and while my reason has little 

 value in open market, its value to me is great. 



Every one who is called upon to develop and perfect the 

 nature of a child takes its ability to do as it likes for granted, 

 and tries to find out why it likes to do what it does, and to sub- 

 stitute wise and prudent motives for superficial or pernicious 

 ones; and the method by which a crafty schemer manipulates 

 his fellow-men for his. own ends is essentially the same. 



We know we are free to do as we like ; and we also know 

 there are reasons why we like to do as we do. 



The reduction of all the phenomena of life to mechanical 

 principles would show that our likings and dislikings are what 

 they might have been expected to be. 



It is hard to see why one who admits that the nature which 

 tells us some actions are pleasant and others painful, some wise 

 and others foolish, some right and others wrong, is natural, 

 should dread the prevalence of mechanical explanations of 

 human nature; for it seems clear that they would not alter or do 

 away with any one thing that we know now. No one who be- 

 lieves duty and moral responsibility are natural would find any 

 reason for changing his belief on proof that our nature is what 

 it might have been expected to be. 



The opinion that there is any incompatibility between natural 

 law and liberty has arisen out of the belief that so far as nature 

 is reducible to laws it is necessary ; and the clear recognition of 

 the truth that a natural law is simply a generalized statement of 

 our confidence that nature is orderly, should show that this 

 opinion is idle ; for while the antithesis to necessary may be 

 arbitrary, the antithesis to order is disorder. 



