CHAPTER VI. 



OF THE WILL. 



In the present chapter I propose to show that the will, which has been 

 regarded as the source of all actions in animals, can only be present in 

 those which possess a special organ for inteUigence ; and that even in 

 these, which include man himself, it is not always the motive of the 

 actions performed. 



On considering the matter, we find indeed that the will is the 

 immediate result of an active intelligence : for it is always the 

 effect of a judgment and hence of an idea, thought, comparison or 

 choice ; lastly, we perceive that the faculty of willing is nothing else 

 than that of determining by thought, that is by an operation of the 

 organ of understanding, to perform some action, combined with the 

 faculty of exciting an emotion of the inner feeling which can produce 

 that action. 



Thus the will is a determination towards some action, and is achieved 

 by the intelligence of the individual : it always results from a judgment, 

 and this judgment itself necessarily springs from an idea or thought 

 or from some impression giving rise to such idea or thought, so that it 

 is purely by an act of intelligence that the will, which determines an 

 individual to some action, can be developed. 



But if the will is nothing else than a determination following upon a 

 judgment, and hence only the result of an intellectual act, it becomes 

 clear that animals which have no organ for intelligence cannot carry 

 out any acts of will. Yet all these animals carry out movements, 

 which constitute their actions. There are then several different 

 sources from which the actions of animals may be derived. 



Now since the movements of all animals are excited and not com- 

 municated, there must be different kinds of exciting causes for these 

 movements. Indeed we have seen that in certain animals these causes 

 come entirely from without, that is to say, from the environment ; 

 while in others, which possess an inner feehng, there is a motive power 

 sufficient for the production of the requisite movements. 



