300 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



we presume none will deny. According to this view of 

 the subject, we can account for the great diversity of ac- 

 tion among individuals, placed in similar external cir- 

 cumstances. The external impressions may be the same ; 

 but these, being subjected to different treatment during 

 the process of reflection, by minds whose notions of truth 

 or duty, (acquired under the influence of attention,) are 

 not in unison, the resulting motives and consequent actions 

 will be dissimilar. We urge, likewise, in support of this 

 view of the subject, the pleasure which the mind feels upon 

 acting agreeably to its rules of truth or duty, and the pain 

 which accompanies their violation ; the former being the 

 proof that the action was agreeable to the constitution of 

 our minds ; the latter, that it was repugnant. Yet such 

 transgressions with regard to our intellectual rules, are but 

 too frequent ; while similar violations of the rules of our 

 constitution, in the case of sleeping, eating, or any of our 

 instinctive powers, are seldom observed. Is there a differ- 

 ence in the degree of restraint which we* can exercise over 

 the instinctive, when compared with the intellectual powers ? 

 It appears probable, that, in reasoning upon this subject, 

 moral philosophers have seldom drawn a line of distinction 

 jjetvveen the exercise of the wilj, when directed to tjie intel- 

 lectual, and when directed to the instinctive powers. The 

 supporters of the doctrine of Free Agency usually derive all 

 their arguments from the characters of the former ; while 

 the Necessitarians rest their proofs on the powerful influence 

 of the latter. It is to a want of attention to the bearings of 

 the question, joined to the sophistry of words, that we can 

 trace much of that difference of opinion which prevails on 

 this subject. 



From the preceding observations, the reader may per- 

 ceive, that while we contend for the existence of free agency 

 in all the processes about which our intellectual faculties 

 mpl ...yal, we arc disposed to admit that its influence 



