FATALISM OR FREEDOM 



assumed sang froid. The prevision of 

 consequences, the Impulsive drive, and the 

 emotional thrills, the wavering doubt, the 

 mind "made up," and the will to achieve 

 success or perish — these internal processes 

 are as truly factors in the resolution of the 

 problem of conduct as are the depth and 

 swiftness of the water and the boy's in- 

 herited bodily organization. 



And the fact that the boy believes that 

 he is free to enter the water or stay out 

 is not a negligible illusion which can be 

 invoked only by resort to a trick of dialec- 

 tics. It is a real causative factor. If the 

 river is deeply frozen he knows that he 

 is not free to swim in it and the choice 

 does not arise. So also if his muscles 

 have been hopelessly crippled by infantile 

 paralysis or his mind kept flabby and his 

 boyish Ideals aborted by injudicious cod- 

 dling. The mollycoddle, like the physical 

 cripple, is not free to swim; he knows it; 

 and the choice is never really presented to 

 him. Kant's dictum, "You can because 

 you ought," must be reversed: "You ought 

 because you can," if the moral issue is to 

 be admitted here at all. 



Our feeling of freedom is one of our 

 greatest satisfactions. This feeling arises 

 naturally during the free expression of our 



[82] 



