4 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for fearlessness of the consequences my only apprehension in that 

 respect being, that any arguments I may present, unrelieved by inter- 

 esting experiments, will not excite sufficient interest to provoke either 

 commendation or censure. 



I think, however, I may properly say that, viewing the problem 

 on the spiritual side, and carefully excluding popular prepossessions 

 and theological dogmas, I have carried the opposite doctrine of " free- 

 dom" to its legitimate logical consequences in the conclusion that 

 every being that wills is a creative first cause, having, in virtue of its 

 attributes of knowledge, feeling, and volition, a power of itself to be- 

 gin action. That the object of every volition or effort is to make the 

 future different from what it otherwise would be, and hence, that every 

 such being is an independent, self-active power in the universe, freely 

 doing its part and cooperating with all other active intelligences in 

 creating the future, which is always the composite result of the action 

 of all such intelligences : that even an oyster, though it have no other 

 power than that of moving its shell, may, so far, create the future and 

 make it different from what it otherwise would be ; and further, that 

 as every intelligent being will conform its action to the conditions 

 under, or upon, which it is to act, the action of each, in changing the 

 conditions, may affect the action of any or of all others, and the action 

 of the lowest may, in this way, influence that of the highest. 



We both, however, admit knowledge and feeling, and recognize 

 consciousness, or the phenomena of knowing, in man and other ani- 

 mals. In discussing questions so fundamental, this must be largely 

 relied upon for the foundation and support of the argument on either 

 side, and I will briefly state my views in regard to its authority. 



Mind, as manifested in man and in brutes, I regard as entirely 

 made up of a capacity for knowledge, a susceptibility to feeling, and a 

 faculty of effort (will) ; this last being the only power we possess ; and 

 if it the effort of intelligent being is not the only power known to 

 us, it is at least that power, of the existence of which we have the most 

 direct and reliable evidence. The recipient and receptacle of all our 

 knowledge, whatever its source, is consciousness. Our conscious per- 

 ceptions and feelings (including emotions) are the foundation of all 

 knowledge, and all belief; but the consciousness of one man, of itself, 

 avails nothing against another having a different consciousness and a 

 different belief. Belief is not a matter of will or of choice, but each 

 must believe in conformity to his own consciousness, and retain his ex- 

 isting belief till his consciousness is in some way changed. The denial 

 of this involves a contradiction, and we may assume, as a corollary to 

 it, that it is not only reasonable, but a necessity, that we believe things 

 to be as they appear to be, till we recognize a sufficient reason for be- 

 lieving that the appearances are deceptive. The testimony of con- 

 sciousness is not equally reliable as to all subjects. In some cases it 

 is conclusive, in others far from it. In regard to our internal percep- 



