216 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



his birth, and by the circumstances with which, after 

 his birth, he is surrounded. Obviously, it is said, 

 he has no voice in the settlement of these, and con- 

 sequently no free-will. I would here remark that 

 undoubtedly will is determined by the strongest 

 motive, but the question is : Has man the power of 

 altering the strength of the motive? It may be 

 presumptuous in me, who am not a psychologist, to 

 offer an opinion on this argument, and I do so with 

 much hesitation. But it seems to me that the effect 

 of the imagination on the will has not been taken 

 into consideration. We can call up memories by 

 will-power, and we can, by introspection, make any 

 combination of these memories we like, and by 

 means of the imagination we can lay more stress on 

 some than on others. No doubt the imagination is 

 part of a man's constitution with which he was 

 born ; in some it is strong, in others it is weak. But 

 the origin of the imagination is irrelevant to the 

 question, which is : Has man any control over it? 

 This is a matter of personal conviction. For myself 

 I feel quite certain that I can alter the strength of my 

 motives ; so that here again I have no difficulty in 

 forming my opinion. Prediction in human affairs 

 is impossible except in quite a general way. 



The third argument is a scientific one, and it 

 looks most formidable. It is : There is abundant 

 evidence to prove the close connection between 

 mental and physical processes. Our mental condi- 

 tions are inseparable from their material equivalents, 

 namely, the processes of the brain and body; and 

 these equivalents take place in accordance with the 



