1889.] ^^*^ [Cope. 



states in the form of motives control the direction of energy in spite of 

 all the difficulties involved in the belief. 



There is, however, evidence that such is the case apart from direct 

 observation. On no other hypothesis is it possible to account for the evo- 

 lution of the mechanism of the brain, the organ of mental phenomena, 

 and of the remainder of the organism which is so well adapted to minis- 

 ter to its necessities. The evidence furnished by evolution is to the effect 

 that continuous use (and disuse) of parts of the body for definite reasons 

 (mostly appetites) have modified their form, and that such modiflcations 

 have been inherited and added to by succeeding generations, until a high 

 degree of specific adaptation, or specialization, has been reached. And 

 this specialization is profitable to its possessor, enabling it to resist the 

 antagonistic energies of nature, and thus to escape the early " integration 

 of its matter and dissipation of its energy." In no other way can the 

 development of man be accounted for, in whom the upward and progres- 

 sive opposition to the downward and retrograde law of dead matter has 

 reached- its highest expression. The designed acts of animals have ever 

 protected and multiplied them, and given them, in ever-extending degrees, 

 control of their environment. This cannot be accounted for on any 

 liypothesis excepting that here maintained, viz., that the metaphysical 

 condition enters into the designed act and determines its nature or direc- 

 tion. The attempt to account for this evolution on the basis of natural 

 selection exclusively, is a paralogism, since a selection does not account 

 for the origin of anything, and evolution is the history of the origin of 

 things. 



We may now return to the consideration of the chacteristics of an act 

 of will. The first stage in the performance of an act is the formation of 

 a judgment. This is simply the complete balance of the motives. It 

 is a metaphysical process, a weighing of considerations derived from 

 purely mental sources, in which the result is reached, not by comparing 

 actual weights, but by comparing sensations and generalizations. In exe- 

 cution, the direction of the act is strictly derived from the judgment in 

 the first place, and is only secondarily derived from the object of the 

 act. Thus an animal projects one ear or the other under the influ- 

 ence of a single motive, curiosity. An animal climbs a tree or hides in a 

 hole under the influence of the same motive, viz., fear. A man worships 

 a fetish, a Brama, or a Budda, under the single influence of religious feel- 

 ing. He gives to any beggar that applies to him, under the direction of 

 the one motive, benevolence. It is evident in all of these cases, which 

 are but illustrations of the universal fact, that the expenditure of energy 

 in the act of willing has no measurable relation to the result attained. 

 Thus an animal or a man may expend more or less energy in performing 

 any of the acts cited, according to material circumstances ; as for example, 

 the length or shortness of the ear; the height or distance of the tree; the 

 earnestness of the worshiper, the manner of his worship, etc. Still less 

 is there any correlation between tlie expenditure of energy in the brain 



