174 Conservation of Energy. CHAP. 



of Conservation ; for it is disputed by none, that the 

 energy put forth in muscular action is not created by 

 an effort of the Will, but has previously existed in the 

 animal organism, stored up in some form which can 

 be drawn on when needed for use. 



Expressed in modern language, the mechanical 

 argument against the possibility of Freedom is that 

 Freedom would be inconsistent with the law of the 

 Conservation of Energy. Freedom, as Delboeuf has 

 defined it in the passage quoted above, implies that 

 it would have been possible for certain events to have 

 befallen differently from what actually has befallen ; 

 and it is asserted that, if this had been the case, the 

 sum total of energy in the universe would have been 

 changed either by increase or by decrease which 

 is impossible. 



One reply to this is, that energy may be trans- 

 formed, without either gain or loss of quantity, under 

 the influence of a force which remains unchanged, 

 and does not itself pass into energy. Thus, in a 

 " dynamo," or generator of electricity for illuminating 

 or other purposes, the motive energy, due to the fall 

 of water or the expansion of steam, is transformed 

 into electricity, under the influence of magnets which 

 themselves undergo neither increase nor diminution 

 of magnetic power ; and it may be argued that the 

 function of the Will, in determining the transformation 

 of nervous and muscular energy, is analogous to that 

 of the magnets of the dynamo ; being unable to pro- 

 duce energy in the smallest quantity, but able to 



