THE PROBLEM OF THE WILL 85 



change in the individual would not be disputed. 

 I am not attempting to account for these changes, 

 but only to show that there are facts outside the 

 physical series as unquestionable, and probably 

 as numerous, as those within it, which have a 

 claim on the attention of all who seek a scien- 

 tific explanation of the life of man. Illustrations 

 by the thousand could be given of those whose 

 heredity was bad enough to bind them to evil as 

 with chains of steel ; whose actual indulgence in 

 vicious courses had been long continued ; and 

 whose environment was full of gross and selfish 

 influences, who yet without cause (using cause as 

 a force in the physical series) were truly con- 

 verted. If it be thought that motives more or 

 less selfish, such as desire for outward prosperity, 

 account for the change in some, this explanation 

 utterly fails in the case of those who surrender 

 all that ministers to selfishness, and devote them- 

 selves to undoing the mischief of their previous 

 lives. When the phenomena of conversion in thou- 

 sands of instances are studied scientifically, what 

 is discovered .-• Events without a physical cause ; 

 an absolute revolution in character and life, due 

 neither to any discoverable element of heredity, 

 nor to any difference in environment. Due to 

 what, then .-' Either to a sovereign act of will, 



