The Emotions. 771 



thing he chooses, but his choice is decided b} r the motives, and could 

 not be otherwise. Nor is it quite true that he is free to take the thing 

 hjB chooses ; he is bound to take it. He cannot do otherwise than take 

 it, any more than his hand can refuse to obey his will. Nor can he pos- 

 sibly take a thing till he does choose to. He is the slave of the choice 

 born of motives supplied originally by the environment. As said above, 

 we practice on this fact however we may theorize. The social organiza- 

 tion has thrown around the individual every bond of control which our 

 present civilization has been able to invent, with a view to compel con- 

 formity to the social interests. The legislature, the school, the church, 

 the press, the courts, are so many agencies for the purpose of creating 

 the motives by which we prefer to see our neighbors governed. They 

 certainly would not exist if men were free from the influence of motives. 

 We know that men will succumb to the most powerful motives, and 

 there is therefore a sharp competition between them, and the fittest mo- 

 tives remain the effectual masters of our lives. 



Our feeling of responsibility, then, is a feeling that we are under ob- 

 ligation or compulsion to do certain things, and is accompanied by a 

 sub-sense of impending penalty, and a more or less vague and ' fearful 

 looking for of judgment " if we fail. It is the very reverse of a sense 

 of freedom. In short, we are in the same condition as a steam engine. 

 When steam is admitted to the cylinder it is free to go, but by no means 

 free not to go. If it is free to go it is. also bound to go. We generally 

 excuse a man for doing that which he is conscientious in doing. Why? 

 Because somehow we feel he is under a compulsion, and could not do 

 otherwise. We therefore recognize that in obeying his conscience he is 

 not free. 



CHAPTER LXXI. 



THE EMOTIONS. 



The distinction made between voluntary and emotional activities has 

 its chief use in rendering a large subject more manageable in our treat- 

 ment of it. But the distinction does not exist in nature. The cortex 

 of the brain is full of the organs of the memories relating to all of our 

 experiences and observations. Most of these connect themselves with 

 our personality in a pleasurable or painful manner, but some are nearly 

 indifferent, and give neither pleasure nor pain. These last seldom 

 become the bases of any of our actions, although they may intervene as 

 modifiers, as to time, place, mode, etc. The former ones are our 

 emotional organs and form the basis of 'the most if not all of our 

 actions. Of course our personality is involved vastly more in some of 



