SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WILL. 141 



tries to neutralize the forces called by the general 

 name of 77801% which, ?j )3m ?'/ yorjrt/a, would make 

 the development of freedom impossible. 



The nowiKi'i of Plato, and the Woe of Aristotle ; 

 the swimming-belt of Horace, the "sentiment" of 

 Hume, all have for their object the protection of 

 the Will while it is weak. The wildest advocate 

 of " free trade " in politics believes in " protection " 

 in morals. 



Revelation itself is Divine education. It en- 

 lightens the conscience by putting before it a 

 Perfect Ideal ; and, like human education, 

 strengthens the will by an appeal to love. 



The special virtues recognized by any age or 

 society are thus the highest known forms under 

 which TO dyaOov is recognized. To be virtuous, 

 however, is not to conform to those conceptions, 

 but to choose them TOU /caXou tWica as an embodi- 

 ment of the good. What is the good when I am 

 in presence of fear, or sensual appetite, or lust 

 of money, or base ambition, or mere self-love in 

 society ? For the Greek, the answer is given in 

 Eth., III. vi.-xii., IV., and V. 



We may now explain some of the puzzles due 

 to the confusion of formal freedom (liberum 

 arbitrium) with real freedom, libertas. 



(a) The Will is always free l because in all 



1 Green's Prolegomena to Ethics, ii. p. 308. 



