Force y Energy, and Will 239 



ice of the human soul; his arguments against free-will 

 tther resemble what we might expect to hear put forward 

 any meeting of secularist artisans than the arguments of 

 le of his scientific eminence. He asks/ ' Are the brain, and 

 le moral and intellectual processes known to be associated 

 dth the brain, subject to the laws which we find paramount 

 physical nature ? ' As if to assert the freedom of the will 

 ras equivalent to the denial of such objection ! Again,^ he 

 says, ' Are we, or are we not, complete masters of the circum- 

 stances which create our wishes, motives, and tendencies to 

 action ? Adequate reflection will, I think, prove that we are 

 not.' As if any one asserted that we are complete masters, or 

 that it needed much reflection to know that we are not ; or 

 as if such knowledge told one iota against the freedom of the 

 will. He then proceeds quietly to beg the question, saying, 

 • My physical and intellectual textures were woven for me, 

 not hy me.' As if the knowledge that they were more or less 

 woven for us Avas a bar to any co-operation of our own in the 

 weaving process. Lastly, he affirms, ' If finally our motives 

 and wishes determine our actions, in what sense can these 

 actions be said to be the result of free will ? ' As if the con- 

 ceded fact that action is ever determined by some ' motive ' 

 was the slightest bar to the action of that power (of the 

 possession of which our consciousness assures us) by which 

 we may voluntarily select a motive less clamorous and less 

 attractive than some other simultaneously soHciting our will. 

 A few words now as to the consequences of this teach- 

 ing ; not that I do not confidently affirm that truth must be 

 sought and followed, be the consequences what they may, 

 but I do so affirm because I am a theist and an opponent of 

 utilitarianism, and can therefore consistently make that affir- 

 mation. It is, however, always fair to argue from utility when 

 arguing with utilitarians, and it may be of service to the cause 



1 P. 608. - P. 609. 



