7o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Vice, Reward and Punisbment, Praise and Blame." Romans, ix. 16, 

 "It is not of him that willeth." Edwards, who has been well com- 

 pared for his j)hilosophic acumen to our own Berkeley, maintains 

 that — 



" The decision of most of the points in controversy between Calvinists and 

 Arminians depends upon the determination of this grand article concerning the 

 freedom of the will requisite to moral agency." 



He argues that God's moral government over mankind is not in- 

 consistent with a determining disposal of all events of every kind 

 throughout the universe. 



"Indeed" (lie says) "such a universal determining Providence infers some kind 

 of 7i€C€ssity of all events — such a necessity as implies an infallible previous fixed- 

 ness of the futurity of the event ; but no other necessity of moral events, or voli- 

 tions of intelligent agents, is needful in order to this than moral necessity^ which 

 does as much to ascertain the futurity of an event as any other necessity. As to 

 freedom of will lying in the power of the will to determine itself, there neither 

 is any such thing, nor any need of it, in order to virtue, rewards, commands, 

 counsels," etc. 



The theology of the most numerous, and, perhaps, the most earnest, 

 sect of Protestant Christians is shown to be utterly adverse to the 

 doctrine of free-will, and it would be equally untrue and uncharitable 

 to deny that the lives of millions of persons guided by these opinions 

 have proved from the Reformation to this hour that the opinion that 

 neitlier wall, thought, nor conduct is free, is consistent with a strict 

 morality. 



We have, perhaps, written more than enough for these pages on 

 "the special purpose" of Dr. Carpenter's work, namely, the develop- 

 ment of the theory that, although the mental functions generally are 

 automatic, the will is free. The theory, so far as we can ascertain, is 

 not sustained by any facts fit to sustain an argument of such weight. 

 The assumed fact that we are conscious of freedom and power to act 

 in accordance with our moral judgment is revealed in face of the con- 

 tradiction which it constantly receives, for the sense of restraint said 

 to be felt by one is at least equivalent to the sense of liberty said to 

 be felt by another. It is even more appreciable. A bird may think 

 itself free to fly where it lists, yet, when dropped from a balloon, it 

 falls like a stone. Any captive may think himself free until he get to 

 the bounds, and the freest of us all is still a captive — 



" And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 



The Traveller. 



" The tendency of the human free-will is to fly upward," writes our 

 author. *' It is by the assimilation rather than by the suhjugatio7i of 

 the human will to the Divine that man is really lifted toward God ; 

 and in proportion as this assimilation has been efiected does it mani- 

 fest itself in the life and conduct, so that even the lowliest actions be- 



