836 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



simultaneously occupied with all objects and all occurrences 

 throughout the universe. To believe in a divine conscious 

 ness, men must refrain from thinking what is meant by con 

 sciousness must stop short with verbal propositions ; and 

 propositions which they are debarred from rendering into 

 thoughts will more and more fail to satisfy them. Of 



course like difficulties present themselves when the will of 

 God is spoken of. So long as we refrain from giving a 

 definite meaning to the word will, we may say that it is 

 possessed by the Cause of All Things, as readily as we may 

 say that love of approbation is possessed by a circle ; but 

 when from the words we pass to the thoughts they stand for, 

 we find that we can no more unite in consciousness the terms 

 of the one proposition than we can those of the other. 

 Whoever conceives any other will than his own, must do so 

 in terms of his own will, which is the sole will directly 

 known to him : all other wills being only inferred. But 

 will, as each is conscious of it, presupposes a motive a 

 prompting desire of some kind. Absolute indifference ex 

 cludes the conception of will. Moreover will, as implying 

 a prompting desire, connotes some end contemplated as one 

 to be achieved, and ceases with the achievement of it : some 

 other will, referring to some other end, taking its place. That 

 is to say, will, like emotion, necessarily supposes a series of 

 states of consciousness. The conception of a divine will, 

 derived from that of the human will, involves like it, locali 

 zation in space and time. The willing of each end, excludes 

 from consciousness for an interval the willing of other 

 ends ; and therefore is inconsistent with that omnipresent 

 activity which simultaneously works out an infinity of 

 ends. It is the same with the ascription of intelligence. 



Not to dwell on the seriality and limitation implied as 

 before, we may note that intelligence, as alone conceivable by 

 us, presupposes existences independent of it and objective to 

 it. It is carried on in terms of changes primarily wrought 

 by alien activities the impressions generated by things 



