130 GENERAL YIEW AND BASIS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



And as the operation of these influences often cannot be 

 directly perceived, we are obliged to infer their existence, 

 as we do that of magnetism and many other invisible 

 things, by means of indirect reasoning ; the certainty of 

 our knowledge of them is not, however, necessarily less on 

 that account. In the conflict of judgment and feeling, 

 also, or of two different feelings or judgments, occurring 

 so frequently, it is very rarely indeed that the effects of 

 the two influences upon the choice are exactly equal, and 

 the least difference turns the scale. 



We must not forget that real choice is not an act of 

 the will, but of comparison and reason, even though the 

 reasons for choosing may be defective ; also that the feel- 

 ings have no real power to choose, because they cannot 

 compare ; their action is purely automatic. We are fre- 

 quently obliged, in the affairs of daily life, to make a 

 choice ; and, having done so, the judgment decides, and 

 the will proceeds to execute. 



The question, ' Is the will free ? ' is an unnecessary 

 one, because freedom is an essential attribute of will. All 

 will is free, as all blackness is black. A will which is not 

 free to will, like a fire which is not free to burn, is a self- 

 contradiction, and cannot therefore exist. An action 

 which ceases to act, like a fire which ceases to burn, is no 

 longer an action. ' Is a man free ? ' is the proper ques- 

 tion ; and to this it may be said, every man is more free 

 to do right, and less to do wrong. He has the greatest 

 freedom to use all his powers in subordination to reason, 

 and least in contradiction to it ; he is most constrained to 

 adopt the course in accordance with that faculty, and most 

 free to pursue it ; and so far only as we employ, in con- 

 formity to reason, all our other powers, do we use the 

 best means of self-guidance, and possess the greatest free- 

 dom of action. He who acts in conformity with properly 



