Freedom of Will Emph-icnlhj Considered. 13 



choice, nor indeed altogether to be rooted out by the most 

 faithful and continuous effort. A portion of these procliv- 

 ities may be attributed to physical inhsritance, and a por- 

 tion to original endowment. For our present purpose we 

 need not strive to settle the balance between them or even 

 stop to enforce the existence of the second constituent. The 

 position of the individual in reference to liberty is not much 

 altered whether his first make-up comes to him by descent 

 or by gift, or by a combination of the two. The stubborn- 

 ness of these first tendencies experience clearly records. 

 Those who have the training of children attach great im- 

 portance to parentage and antecedents. Even in the 

 earliest instruction these forces make themselves felt. The 

 parent and the teacher are constantly aware in the same 

 household of diversities of temperaments and tastes as 

 fundamental considerations in discipline. It is true that 

 much more can be done in shaping these forces early in life 

 than later in life, but they can at no time be overlooked, and 

 will often undo unskilful and even skilful labor in a sudden, 

 resentful way. 



It is also to be remembered that the moral inheritance of 

 early surroundings and discipline so adds itself to, and in- 

 corporates itself with, primitive endowments as to be prac- 

 tically inseparable from them. By the time a young man 

 begins to come within the range of his own personal freedom 

 a, composite stream of strong currents has him in hand. He 

 need not lose time to inquire how he came by his inclina- 

 tions, whether by native endowment, by physical inherit- 

 ance, or by direct instruction ; to guide and shape these 

 energies, already realized in volume and direction, becomes 

 his sufficient labor. The limitations of liberty are, there- 

 fore, very obvious and very great. They are allied to those 

 of a gunner whose position and piece are given him. Said 

 an active boy in answer to the complaints of his sluggish 

 companion, "I do not walk so fast on purpose, I cannot help 

 it." If we look at the limitations of liberty in reference to 

 the immediate actions that are to follow them, we may re- 

 gard freedom as not having much to do with the ordering 



