It is alike true that he determined the action, and that the aggregate of his 

 feelings and ideas determined it ; since, during its existence, this aggregate 

 constituted his then state of consciousness, that is, himself. Either the ego, 

 which is supposed to determine or will the action, is present in conscious- 

 ness or it is not. If it is not present in consciousness, it is something of 

 which we are unconscious something, therefore, of whose existence we neither 

 have nor can have any evidence. If it is present in consciousness, then, as it is 

 ever present, it can be at each moment nothing else than the state of con- 

 sciousness, simple or compound, passing at that moment. It follows, inevi- 

 tably, that when an impression, received from without, makes nascent certain 

 appropriate motor changes, and various of the feelings* and ideas which must 

 accompany and follow them ; and when, under the stimulus of this composite 

 psychical state, the nascent motor changes pass in actual motor changes ; 

 this composite psychical state, which excites the action, is, at the same time, 

 the ego which is said to will the action. Naturally enough, then, the subject 

 of such psychical changes says that he wills the action ; since, psychically 

 considered, he is at that moment nothing more than the composite state of 

 consciousness by which the action is excited. But to say that the performance 

 of the action is, therefore, the result of his free will, is to say that he determines 

 the cohesions of the psychical states which arouse the action ; and, as these 

 psychical states constitute himself at that moment, this is to say that these 

 psychical states determine their own cohesions, which is absurd. Their 

 cohesions have been determined by experiences the greater part of them 

 constituting what we call his natural character, by the experiences of ante- 

 cedent organisms ; and the rest by his own experiences. The changes which 

 at each moment take place in his consciousness, and among others those 

 which he is said to will, are produced by this infinitude of previous expe- 

 riences registered in his nervous structure, co-operating with the immediate 

 impressions on his senses : the effects of these combined factors being in 

 every case qualified by the physical state, general or local, of his organism. 



" This subjective illusion, in which the notion of free-will commonly origi- 

 nates, is strengthened by a corresponding objective illusion. The actions of 

 other individuals, lacking as they do that uniformity characterising pheno- 

 mena of which the laws are known, appear to be lawless appear to be under 

 no necessity of following any particular order ; and are hence supposed to be 

 determined by the unknown independent something called the Will. But 

 this seeming indeterminateness in the mental succession is consequent on the 

 extreme complication of the forces in action. The composition of causes is 

 so intricate, and from moment to moment so varied, that the effects are not 

 calculable. These effects are, however, as conformable to law as the simplest 

 reflex actions. The irregularity and apparent freedom are inevitable results 

 of the complexity, and equally arise in the inorganic world under parallel 

 conditions. To amplify an illustration before used : A body in space, sub- 

 ject to the attraction of a single other body, moves in a direction that can be 

 accurately predicted. If subject to the attractions of two bodies, its course 

 is but approximately calculable. If subject to the attractions of three 

 bodies, its course cn be calculated with still less precision. And, if it is 

 surrounded by bodies of all sizes at all distances, its motion will be appa- 

 rently uninfluenced by any of them : it will move in some indefinable 

 varying line that appears to be self-determined : it will seem to be free. 

 Similarly, in proportion as the cohesions of each psychical state to others 

 become great in number and various in degree, the psychical changes will 

 become incalculable and apparently subject to no law.'' 



* There is evidently some mistake here, but those are the ipsissima verba 

 of Mr. Spencer's work. 



