x VOLITION: LIBERTY AND NECESSITY 229 



free, and as completely powerless, as a mathe- 

 matical point, in vacuo, would be. Hence volition 

 is uncaused, so far as it belongs to the noumenon; 

 but, necessary, so far as it takes effect in the 

 phenomenal world. 



Since Kant is never weary of telling us that we 

 know nothing whatever, and can know nothing, 

 about the noumenon, except as the hypothetical 

 subject of any number of negative predicates; the 

 information that it is free, in the sense of being 

 out of reach of the law of causation, is about as 

 valuable as the assertion that it is neither gray, 

 nor blue, nor square. For practical purposes, it 

 must be admitted that the inward possession of 

 such a noumenal libertine does not amount to 

 much for people whose actual existence is made 

 up of nothing but definitely regulated phenomena. 

 When the good and evil angels fought for the 

 dead body of Moses, its presence must have been 

 of about the same value to either of the contend- 

 ing parties, as that of Kant's noumenon, in the 

 battle of impulses which rages in the breast of 

 man. Metaphysicians, as a rule, are sadly deficient 

 in the sense of humour; or they would surely 

 abstain from advancing propositions which, when 

 stripped of the verbiage in which they are dis- 

 guised, appear to the profane eye to be bare 

 shams, naked but not ashamed. 



