132 GENERAL VIEW AND BASIS OF SCIENTIFIC KESEARCH. 



upon it, we can, in proportion to our knowledge of the 

 particular case, and our ability to reason, usually predict 

 the chief result correctly. Society indeed could not exist, 

 nor human intercourse be possible, unless men could, to a 

 very large extent, successfully predict the volitions and 

 moral actions of men under certain known conditions ; for 

 instance, if I only send to a friend a note of invitation to 

 dinner, I conclude that if he receives it and is able to send 

 me a reply, he will do so, and in at least nine cases out of 

 ten such a prediction is correct. All our social and legal 

 institutions recognise on the one hand the influence of 

 natural laws and circumstances upon the human will, and 

 on the other the power of self-guidance by means of the 

 intellect ; we all of us treat each other as free agents, and 

 as beings subject to laws of mind. If the absence of 

 power of prediction is a test of freedom of will, then mad- 

 men have most ' free-will,' because their actions are the 

 most difficult to predict. 



If the will is ' independent of natural law,' its actions 

 are not limited by such law. Bat, instead of this, the will 

 is limited in every respect. We are often compelled to 

 choose, and to act upon our choice. The will has not an 

 unrestricted power to produce either sensations or ideas, 

 nor can it entirely prevent our feeling or observing them ; 

 either the voluntary or the automatic action will prevail, 

 according to that which is the stronger. Many sensa- 

 tions and ideas force themselves upon our notice ; few 

 persons can by an act of volition (except in states of 

 intense excitement, or of insanity) entirely prevent the 

 feeling of bodily pain or pleasure, the emotion of grief 

 or joy ; nor wholly prevent themselves observing light or 

 darkness, thunder or lightning, or any of the more power- 

 ful sensations or ideas excited by the common events of 

 nature or of human existence. The will of a man is also 



