224 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



execution. Habit may come later, but the process 

 must at first have been intelligent and free. 



We are now in a position to understand the solu- 

 tion of the free-will problem. At first mind was 

 free, because it must have existed before it under- 

 went any experience. Experience came, and con- 

 stant repetition made mind an apparent slave to the 

 physical forces, although attention was occasionally 

 called into action by new external irritants. But 

 this was followed by relapse. Concentration of 

 nervous matter, however, went on until, in the brain- 

 cortex, attention developed in self-consciousness, 

 and in the large cerebrum of man mind has once 

 more passed into its original free state. It is this 

 form of volition that we call free-will. 



We need not assume a pre-natal hyperphysical 

 soul miraculously introduced into the human body, 

 as the determinists would saddle us with. All is 

 natural, there is nothing mysterious about it. The 

 soul is free-will acting on the imagination ; and we 

 only suppose that it gradually develops as the mind 

 becomes more and more free with age. 



Our freedom, however, is only imperfect. We are 

 still bound by unreasonable customs and by ancient 

 superstitions. As time goes on the mind will be- 

 come more and more free. Eeason will be more and 

 more employed in things of every day life ; and cus- 

 tom will be broken down by imagining better things. 

 Changes will be more rapid and conservatism will 

 die out. But this state of things will only be tem- 

 porary. When all actions are reasonable, conser- 

 vatism will again assert itself and mind will be, 



