220 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



The determinists try to escape from this argument 

 by saying that because men think themselves free, 

 they ought to obey the moral law. But how can 

 they do so if they are not free agents ? And if a man 

 is a determinist, how can he feel regret for doing an 

 action which he thinks he was obliged to do? 



Secondly. If mind has no freedom of action, in- 

 telligence is useless to us. Why should the intellect 

 of man have been so far developed that he can under- 

 stand the process of evolution, unless he was in- 

 tended to affect it in some way? 



Thirdly. There is the conviction, felt by every- 

 one, that he is a free agent. The determinist allows 

 the existence of this conviction, but says that it is 

 an illusion. He says that it is impossible for anyone 

 to have an exhaustive knowledge of his own motives, 

 and therefore he cannot tell what has moved him. 

 But this argument is an obvious fallacy, for we can- 

 not be swayed by ideas which we have forgotten. 

 The process is not mechanical but mental. It may 

 be influenced by habits, but these also we know, and 

 we often shew the freedom of our will by over- 

 coming them. 



I will now place before the reader an hypothesis 

 which appears to reconcile the facts and to supply 

 an explanation of free-will in man. But to make 

 ihis clear it will be necessary to recall Professor 

 Hering's theory of unconscious memory, which I 

 have already explained. However, as it is always 

 useful to look at a new idea in different ways, I will 

 re-state the theory from rather a different point of 

 view. 



