176 Life and Matter [chap.ix. 



determined. As a matter of fact any partitioned- 

 off region is in general not completely self- 

 determined, since it is liable to be acted upon by 

 influences from the other side of the partition. 

 If the far side of the boundary is ignored, then 

 an observer on the near side will conclude that 

 things really initiate their own motion and act 

 without stimulation or motive, in some cases, 

 whereas the fact is that no act is performed with- 

 out stimulus or motive ; even irrational acts are 

 caused by something, and so also are rational acts. 

 Madness and delirium are natural phenomena 

 amenable to law. 



But in actual life we are living on one side of a 

 boundary, and are aware of things on one side 

 only ; the things on this side appear to us to 

 constitute the whole universe, since they are all 

 of which we have any knowledge, either through 

 our senses or in other ways. Hence we are 

 subject to certain illusions, and feel certain 

 difficulties, the illusion of unstimulated and un- 

 motived freedom of action, and the difficulty of 

 reconciling this with the felt necessity for general 

 determinism and causation. 



If we speak in terms of the part of the universe 

 that we know and have to do with, we find free 

 agencies rampant among organic life ; so that 

 "freedom of action" is a definite and real 

 experience, and for practical convenience is so 

 expressed. But if we could seize the entirety of 

 things and perceive what was occurring beyond 

 the range of our limited conceptions we should 



