274 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



conscious of the power to choose. It is this consciousness 

 (being an abstraction) of which a dog knows nothing. 



The man then balances in his mind abstract motives 

 and probable consequences, the sense of right and wrong, 

 the influence upon character, etc., etc. He then ment- 

 ally returns to the choice and finally sacrifices the desire 

 for illicit gain and refuses to cheat the man. 



The word " free " may not be a good adjective for 

 will ; but all it means, as I, at least, understand it, is that 

 man is conscious that he can deliberately choose ; whereas 

 a dog is bound by determinism and is therefore not 

 "free" at all. 



Both man and dog are finally guided by the strongest 

 motive ; but in different ways, viz., by Volition and Auto- 

 matism, respectively. 



Let us suppose, as another illustration, that a man 

 drives up to a door and leaves his horse and carriage 

 outside the house, for he knows the horse will remain 

 there. After a time the horse gets impatient and paws 

 the ground as a sign it wants to be off; but it cannot 

 move. Why does it not go off on its own account ? 

 Solely because it is an automaton and cannot realise that 

 it has the power to go ; nor has it the will to move, how- 

 ever much it may have the wisJi to do so. 



The late Dr. W. B. Carpenter has developed this 

 subject admirably in his Mental Physiology, wherein he 

 says : " The Power of the Will is exerted in the pur- 

 posive selection (from among those objects o^ consciousness, 

 which Sensations from without and the working of the 

 internal Mechanism of Thought and Feeling within, 

 bring before the Ego) of that which shall be determinately 

 followed up. This state is what is termed Attention. 



" It is solely by the Volitional direction of the Attention, 

 that the Will exerts its domination. 



