SPONTANEITY 15 



wholly different from that of lifeless objects. All 

 living organisms seem to possess, in some degree, 

 the faculty of selection, and are able to discover 

 ways of circumventing difficulties. Air bubbles 

 which are prevented from rising in water, simply 

 press themselves against the obstacle ; animal- 

 cules will find a path round its edge. 



According to one school the " determinist " 

 school of thought, spontaneity, or free will, is 

 non-existent, and our impression that we can 

 direct our thoughts or our actions is entirely 

 fallacious. We are automata, and every idea 

 that enters our minds, every act of our behaviour, 

 is imposed upon us by our instincts, or our 

 habits, or is the inevitable consequence of our 

 sensations or our memories. Determinist philoso- 

 phers not only maintain that we are the result of 

 forces which are in theory calculable, but that it 

 is logically unthinkable that we should possess 

 any initiative. Yet, if one who is intellectually 

 convinced by these arguments will look into his 

 own mind, he will find there an ineradicable idea 

 that, as a matter of fact, he is endowed with a 

 will and can exercise it freely. Introspective 

 observation refuses to accept the conclusions of 

 logic ; but we need not conclude that introspection 

 is misleading. Logic traces effects back to causes, 

 and formulates, as a natural law, the invariable 

 connection of a particular effect with a particular 

 cause. But the effects of Life are so complicated 

 and elusive that they cannot be reduced to rule 

 with the precision that is attainable in dealing 

 with inanimate matter ; and, in classifying its 

 manifestations the logician is apt to mistake 

 conditioning circumstances for ultimate causes. 

 He might, for instance, conclude that I had 

 joined a golf club because the links were close at 

 my door, whereas the real cause was that I had 



