FREE WILL. 



299 



animal. Who can question that some canine races, of 

 which the descent from stupid jackals and wolves is as 

 good as certain, have raised themselves mentally far above 

 their ancestry ? Who, that has read the comprehensive 

 investigations of H. Miiller, the brother of our Fritz 

 Miiller, can doubt that the honey-bee, as it gradually 

 attained its bodily advantages and peculiarities, de- 

 veloped likewise the higher mental powers, correspond- 

 ing with the more minute and complex organism of her 

 brain ? Man — such is the thesis we propound, reserving 

 the question of language — differs from many animals 

 only in the degree and means of progress. It is there- 

 fore unscientific to contrast humanity and animality in 

 the abstract. 



Man alone, it is further maintained, has a free will. 

 In so far as the more highly developed man acts in 

 accordance with philosophical, moral and religious 

 principles, for which he is indebted to education and 

 instruction — in so far as he is able to apprehend ideals, 

 and strive after them with his own mental and bodily 

 power, this command of will may be readily admitted, 

 although we know that this " freedom " is likewise the 

 collective result of natural causes. But the more simple 

 and uniform the conditions of life, the more do the 

 dealings of men lose the semblance and character of 

 freedom, and the more does the individual act after the 

 will of the tribe — I might say, of the herd — that is to say, 

 instinctively. In this case actions are not performed 

 even with the astounding premeditation with which 

 some few happily organized individual animals of some 

 few species turn the circumstances to account with 

 apparently complete free will. The free will of the 



