ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



ens may be one cause. He says he never could per- 

 suade himself to believe that Nature, being the 

 mother of all, could be so ungenerous to any of her 

 children; hence it must be some hostile influence 

 from above. Similar notions seem to have been held 

 in Shakespeare's time: 



" It is the stars. 

 The stars above us, govern our conditions; 

 Else one self mate and make could not beget 

 *such different issues." 



XIII. THINKING AND ACTING 



It is true we do not, as a rule, act without thinking, 

 or without some sort of psychic process, but think- 

 ing and acting are radically different. Or, we may 

 say that the practical reason is alone concerned in 

 action, and the abstract intellect in general reason- 

 ing. When we come to act, we know that we are free 

 to choose between two or more objects or courses; 

 when we think or reason abstractly, we know the 

 will is not free. Every act has its antecedent cause. 

 But we are practically free because we feel no re- 

 straint or compulsion. We feel responsible for our 

 acts. We do not blame our red-haired father, or our 

 grandfather of Irish blood, for our hasty temper; we 

 feel that this is our very selves. What we call moral 

 responsibility rests upon this sense of freedom. We 

 are not aware of the fatality that binds us, any 

 more than we are of the weight of the atmosphere 



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