CHAPTEB XXVI. 



WILL AND VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS. 



" WE find in ourselves," says Locke (1690), " a Power to 

 begin or forbear, continue or end several Actions of our 

 Minds and Motions of our Bodies, barely by a Thought 

 or preference of the Mind." 



Here the scope of that ability, which goes by the name 

 of ' Will ' or ' Volition,' is clearly enough marked out 

 by one who may be styled the father of our modern 

 Psychology. 



In regard to the second of the spheres above-mentioned 

 for the exercise of Will, viz., its influence over " the 

 Motions of our Bodies," Locke ventured upon no details; 

 and even at a much later period Hume (1747) was still 

 only able to proclaim the complete, and, as he thought, 

 hopeless ignorance which reigned thereon. " The motion 

 of our bodies," he said, "follows upon the command of 

 our Will. Of this we are every moment conscious. But 

 the means by which this is effected ; the energy by which 

 the Will performs so extraordinary an operation ; of this 

 we are so far from being immediately conscious, that it 

 must ever escape our diligent inquiry." 



Hartley, in his " Observations on Man," published 

 only one year later than Hume's "Inquiry," made, how- 

 ever, some valuable and very sagacious remarks on the 

 causes, modes of acquisition, and mutual relations of the 



