THEIR CORRELATION. 465 



or necessary. This is as though we misunderstood the 

 relation of the Hmbs to the body, and fancying that the 

 body belonged to the limbs, instead of vice versa, pro- 

 ceeded to dispute whether the body was all leg or all 

 arm. 



§ 8. And if we consider concrete cases of a maximum 

 and minimum consciousness of freedom and necessity, it 

 becomes quite clear that they cannot be regarded as 

 normal. 



The maximum consciousness of freedom is possessed by 

 the man who is most vividly conscious of his capacity of 

 choosing to do one thing or the other. I.e., he hesitates 

 between several possible courses ; intellectually he is irre- 

 solute, while morally he feels all the temptations to do 

 wrong, i.e., he lacks the principles which make conceivable 

 crimes " morally impossible.^' And whether he finally acts 

 well or ill,^ his capacity to feel his freedom is due to the 

 defects of his reason and his will. If he could see more 

 clearly what course was wise, if he were impelled by 

 stronger and more unhesitating habits to act rightly, his 

 consciousness of freedom of choice would disappear. It 

 is the mark of the imperfection of his nature, of the lack 

 of stability and harmony in the interaction of its elements. 



Taking next the maximum consciousness of necessity, 

 we arrive at a similar result. The man who always feels 

 that " he can't help doing " a thing, that he is compelled 

 against his better inclinations, is also a man in a high state 

 of internal tension. His nature is so ill adapted to the 

 functions of life that there is much friction between the 

 higher and lower elements, just as in the man who felt 

 at liberty to commit every imaginable crime and folly. 

 Only in this case he is dKpdT'r)<;, he succumbs to the temp- 

 tation and is enslaved by it, and so feels unfree. 



But though he represents a lower grade of moral 

 development than the man who felt " free," he is yet far 

 from having reached the lowest depth of degradation. If 

 he were thoroughly degraded he would no longer feel his 

 slavery. His action would cease to be *' necessary," be- 

 cause it would have sunk beneath the level at which 

 consciousness of necessity exists. Thorough wickedness 

 ^ In ancient Greek phraseology, is eyKpdrtjs or aKparris. 



R. ofS. H ^ 



