V ANIMAL AUTOMATISM 249 



persuade us that we are the authors of our actions, be conciliated 

 with this hypothesis ? If it removes the difficulty which attends 

 the conception of the action of the soul on the body, on the other 

 hand it leaves untouched that which meets us in endeavouring 

 to conceive the action of the body on the soul." 



But if Leibnitz, Jonathan Edwards, and Hartley 

 men who rank among the giants of the world of 

 thought could see no antagonism between the 

 doctrine under discussion and Christian orthodoxy, 

 is it not just possible that smaller folk may be 

 wrong in making such a coil about " logical con- 

 sequences " ? And, seeing how large a share of 

 this clamour is raised by the clergy of one denomi- 

 nation or another, may I say, in conclusion, that it 

 really would be well if ecclesiastical persons 

 would reflect that ordination, whatever deep-seated 

 graces it may confer, has never been observed to 

 be followed by any visible increase in the learning 

 or the logic of its subject. Making a man 

 a Bishop, or entrusting him with the office of 

 ministering to even the largest of Presbyterian 

 congregations, or setting him up to lecture to a 

 Church congress, really does not in the smallest 

 degree augment such title to respect as his 

 opinions may intrinsically possess. And when 

 such a man presumes on an authority which was 

 conferred upon him for other purposes to sit in 

 judgment upon matters his incompetence to deal 

 with which is patent, it is permissible to ignore 

 his sacerdotal pretensions, and to tell him, as one 



