288 Instinct, 



may be held in check at the bidding of his higher 

 nature. In connection with this office of Will, in 

 man, \.\iQ power of choice is manifested, — CHOICE OF 

 AN ULTIMATE END FOR LIFE, or the line of activity 

 for life, which determines each man's position in the 

 world, so far as it is possible for him to break through 

 the bounds, which physical organization prescribes 

 for him. It gives individuaHty among men, from 

 some principle superior to physical organization, 

 and hence the diversity of human life. We honor 

 or despise men for what they are through their own 

 choice. 



We can discover no power like this in the an- 

 imal. His position is marked out for him by his 

 structure and instincts. He has no power to learn 

 the history of the past, or to contemplate the possibil- 

 ities of the distant future, and then train himself, 

 by years of labor and self-denial, for the conflict. 

 This power man has. 



Passing still higher, we find the Moral Nature, 

 with its great central impulse, OBLIGATION, which 

 governs, or ought to govern, all the powers below it. 

 It is to the higher nature of man what the bodily 

 instincts are in animals, except that in man, Intel- 

 lect must give the knowledge needful to direct, and 

 Will the limitation of action. So that every act of 

 man from the impulse of Obligation involves the 

 exercise of free personality. 



Knowledge of relations through the Power of Com- 

 prehension, the Sense of Obligation arising in view of 

 that comprehension, and the Power of Choice, in accord- 

 ance with Obligation, or against it, are the attributes of 



