FREEDOM AND 'FREE-WILL.' 191 



determine the occurrence or non-occurrence of acts which are, by 

 hypothesis, independent of what is contained in Tommy and his en- 

 vironment? Does she forget that she is raining her blows upon a 'free' 

 agent? As well beat the lad to prevent the lightning from striking the 

 steeple in the next block. 



The utter absurdity of punishing a 'free' agent, in so far as he is 

 a 'free' agent, must be apparent to every unprejudiced mind. It is 

 unjust and it is useless. And it seems clear that it is equally useless 

 to make an effort to persuade him. To what end shall I marshal all 

 sorts of good reasons for not doing this or that reprehensible action? 

 To what end shall I pour forth my torrent of eloquence, painting in 

 vivid colors the joys of virtue and the varied miseries which lurk upon 

 the path of the evil-doer? Are my words supposed to have effect, or are 

 they not? If not, it is not worth while to utter them. Evidently they 

 cannot have effect in determining 'free' actions, for such actions cannot 

 be effects of anything. It seems, then, that Tommy's mother and his 

 aunts and all his spiritual pastors and masters have for years approached 

 Tommy upon a strictly deterministic basis. They have thought it worth 

 while to talk, and to talk a great deal. They have done what all peda- 

 gogues do — they have adjusted means to ends, and have looked for 

 results, taking no account of 'freedom' at all. Of course, in so far as 

 Tommy upon a strictly deterministic basis. They have thought it worth 

 of the melancholy situation of the man who finds himself the father of 

 half a dozen little 'free-will' monsters who cannot possibly be reached 

 either by moral suasion or by the rod! 



It is a melancholy world, this world of 'freedom.' In it no man can 

 count upon himself and no man can persuade his neighbor. We are, it 

 is true, powerless to lead one another into evil; but we are also powerless 

 to influence one another for good. It is a lonely world, in which each 

 man is cut off from the great whole and given a lawless little world all 

 to himself. And it is an uncertain world, a world in which a knowledge 

 of the past casts no ray into the darkness of the future. To-morrow I 

 am to face nearly a hundred students in logic. It is a new class, and I 

 know little about its members save that they are students. I have 

 assumed that they will act as students usually act, and that I shall 

 escape with my life. But if they are endow r ed with 'free-will,' what may 

 I not expect? What does 'free-will' care for the terrors of the Dean's 

 office, the long green table, and the Committee of Discipline? Is it 

 interested in Logic? Or does it have a personal respect for me? The 

 picture is a harrowing one, and I drop the curtain upon it. 



Fortunately for us all, 'freedom' is the concern of the philosophers; 

 freedom is what we have to do with in real life. The judge, the philan- 

 thropist, the moralist, the pedagogue, all assume that man may be a 

 free agent without on that account being forced beyond the pale into 



