526 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



'FEEE-WILL' AND THE CREDIT FOE GOOD ACTIONS. 



By Professor GEORGE STUART FULLERTON, 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



WE can imagine what would be the emotion of a college professor 

 if the president of the institution were to shake him warmly by 

 the hand and congratulate him upon the fact that, although he had been 

 freely admitted for a year to the book-stack of the college library, he 

 had not stolen so much as a single volume. We can conceive the em- 

 barrassment of a clerg3'man whose bishop would feel impelled to give 

 expression to his satisfaction at the fact that, during a visit extending 

 over a week or more, he had not been distressed by hearing any word of 

 profanity or observing any act of violence. 'What in the world can the 

 man have been expecting of me?' exclaims the indignant recipient of 

 such a compliment. 'Does he take me for a blackleg? Perhaps the 

 next time he sees me he will take it upon himself to felicitate me on 

 having so far escaped the gallows.' 



The fact is that whenever we speak of a man as deserving credit for 

 this or that worthy action, our compliment is accompanied by some- 

 thing very like a criticism. It is implied that the action is one not easy 

 to perform, at least in the given instance. We do not ordinarily tliink 

 a mother deserves great credit for taking good care of her infant, or a 

 father for supporting his family when he has it in his power to do so. 

 We assume that these things are easy and natural, and quite in accord 

 with the impulses which control the individual. But we do think a wo- 

 man deserves credit for adopting and lavishing her care upon mother- 

 less children that have no special claim upon her, and a man for labor- 

 ing to feed those who are not bound to him by the closest of natural 

 ties. Were it as easy to care for the children of others as to care for 

 one's own, were the impulse to do so just as strong, we should never 

 think of such actions as especially creditable. They would undoubtedly 

 be good actions, but it is one thing to recognize actions as good and 

 quite another to single them out as deserving of credit. It is a good 

 thing for a college professor not to steal, and for a clergyman to avoid 

 acts of violence, but we never think of remarking upon the fact that 

 their conduct is creditable, when we have nothing better to say of them 

 than that they possess these negative virtues. 



Some virtues we expect of men generally. We assume that the 

 right course is the easy one to take, or, at least, is relatively easy, and we 



