inds 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



754 



idea of force, or by investing combinations 

 of force with the attributes of mind. AR- 

 GYLL Reign of Law, ch. 2, p. 73. (Burt.) 



3732. WILL AS VIEWED BY THE 

 PHYSIOLOGIST Volition Connected with 

 Organic Changes Loss of Power of Will in 

 Mental Derangement. As physiologists, we 

 have to deal with volition as a function of 

 the supreme centers, following reflection, 

 varying in quantity and quality as its cause 

 varies, strengthened by education and exer- 

 cise, enfeebled by disuse, decaying with de- 

 cay of structure, and always needing for its 

 outward expression the educated agency of 

 the subordinate motor centers. We have to 

 deal with will, not as a single undecompo- 

 sable faculty unaffected by bodily conditions, 

 but as a result of organic changes in the 

 supreme centers, affected as certainly and 

 seriously by disorder of them as our motor 

 faculties are by disorder of their centers. 

 Loss of power of will is one of the earliest 

 and most characteristic symptoms of mental 

 derangement; and whatever may have been 

 thought in times past, we know well now 

 that the loss is not the work of some un- 

 clean spirit that has laid its hands upon 

 the will, but the direct effect of physical 

 disease. MAUDSLEY Body and Mind, lect. 1, 

 p. 28. (A., 1898.) 



3733. WILL CREATES NO FORCE 

 Existing Bodily Energy Directed by Mind. 

 As a physiologist, I most fully recognize 

 the fact that the physical force exerted by 

 the body of man is not generated de novo 

 by his will, but is derived from the oxida- 

 tion of the constituents of his food. But 

 holding it as equally certain, because the 

 fact is capable of verification by every one 

 as often as he chooses to make the experi- 

 ment, that, in the performance of every vo- 

 litional movement, that physical force is 

 put in action, directed, and controlled, by 

 the individual personality or " ego," I deem 

 it just as absurd and illogical to affirm that 

 there is no place for a God in Nature, origi- 

 nating, directing, and controlling its forces 

 by his will, as it would be to assert that 

 there is no place in man's body for his con- 

 scious mind. CARPENTER Nature and Man, 

 lect. 12, p. 364. (A., 1889.) 



3734. WILL, DETHRONEMENT OF, 

 IN INTOXICATION Drunkard a Madman- 

 Limits of Responsibility and Punishment. 

 When the government of the will is com- 

 pletely overthrown, and the excited passions 

 rage uncontrolled, the drunkard may be most 

 truly said to be a madman, and is, like him, 

 at the time completely irresponsible for his 

 actions, since, even if some glimmering con- 

 sciousness of their criminality should still 

 remain, he has lost all power either of re- 

 straining his vehement impulses, or of with- 

 drawing himself from their influence. His 

 responsibility arises from his having know- 

 ingly and voluntarily given up the reins of 

 reason and conscience, and subjected himself 

 to the domination of his evil passions; so 



that his better nature loses its due su- 

 premacy, and he becomes the mere instru- 

 ment of his insane impulses. It has been 

 argued with considerable plausibility that a 

 man ought not to be punished for any crime 

 he may commit in a state of intoxication, 

 since he is then in a state of " temporary 

 insanity " ; but that he should be punished 

 as severely for having brought himself into 

 that state. This would doubtless be the most 

 logical mode of dealing with the criminal; 

 but as it would require that every drunkard 

 should be held guilty of a crime equal in 

 gravity to murder, such punishment could 

 obviously not be enforced. CARPENTER Men- 

 tal Physiology, ch. 17, p. 651. (A., 1900.) 



3735. WILL FIXING ATTENTION 

 ON DIVINE IDEAL The highest exercise 

 of the will is shown in those who are en- 

 dowed with vigorous intellectual powers, and 

 whose strong emotional nature gives force 

 to all their tendencies to action, but who 

 determinately fix their attention on the di- 

 vine ideal, and steadily endeavor to shape 

 their character and direct their conduct 

 in accordance with it. CARPENTER Mental 

 Physiology, bk. i, ch. 9, p. 428. (A., 1900.) 



3 7 36. WILL FREE FROM COMPUL- 

 SION Motives Do Not Destroy Freedom. 

 It is true that our wills can never be free 

 from motives, and in this sense can never be 

 free from " law." But this is only saying that 

 we can never be free from the relations pre- 

 established between the structure of our 

 minds and the system of things in which 

 they are formed to move. From these, it 

 is true, indeed, that we never can be free. 

 But as a matter of fact, we know that these 

 relations do not involve compulsion. It is 

 from compulsion that our wills are free, and 

 from nothing else; and for this freedom we 

 have the only evidence we can ever have 

 for any ultimate truth respecting the powers 

 of mind the evidence of consciousness 

 that is, the evidence of observation turned 

 in upon ourselves. ARGYLL Reign of Law, 

 ch. 6, p. 182. (Burt.) 



3737. WILL IN OPPOSITION TO RE- 

 FLEX ACTION Darwin's Experiment Self- 

 preserving Act Uncontrollable. To prevent 

 the reflex action of crying out when in pain, 

 it is often sufficient firmly to clench the teeth 

 or to grasp some object and hold it tight. 

 When the feet are tickled we can, by an 

 effort of will, prevent the reflex action of 

 jerking them up. So, too, the involuntary 

 closing of the eyes and starting, when a 

 blow is aimed at the head, can be similarly 

 restrained. 



Darwin has mentioned an interesting ex- 

 ample of the way in which, on the other 

 hand, such an instinctive reflex act may 

 override the strongest effort of the will. 

 He placed his face close against the glass 

 of the cobra's cage in the Reptile House at 

 the Zoological Gardens, and tho, of course, 

 thoroughly convinced of his perfect security, 



