THE PROBLEM OF THE WILL 



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almost miraculous power interferes, choose the 

 coarse and the evil. If the will is the man willing, 

 it must be modified by all that modifies the person- 

 ality. It seems at first as if we must grant that 

 the will of each human being is determined before 

 his birth, and that its choices are as sure as the 

 movements of the stars. If, however, we say that 

 the will is something independent of the other 

 faculties, something outside the influence of phys- 

 ical causation, we are met instantly with the 

 demand for evidence. It is not to be denied that, 

 approaching this subject as we have through a 

 study of the lower faculties, the presumption is 

 against such an hypothesis. There are facts, how- 

 ever, to support the hypothesis, and to overthrow 

 the presumption against it ; for not infrequently 

 men break from the lines in which they were born, 

 and seem to be almost independent of their ances- 

 try. Though they are the offspring of vicious 

 and criminal generations, they rise to pure and 

 even lofty character. Doubtless they have to fight 

 heredity, but they have a power which enables 

 them to fight it successfully. John Bunyan 

 belonged to this class ; Jerry McAuley, the thief 

 who, reversing a long career of crime, went to 

 his grave full of honour and usefulness, and most 

 of the converts made by the missionaries, all 



