548 PSYCHOLOGY. 



the saddest feelings one can bear with him through this 

 vale of tears. 



We now see at one view when it is that effort complicates 

 volition. It does so whenever a rarer and more ideal im- 

 pulse is called upon to neutralize others of a more instinc- 

 tive and habitual kind ; it does so whenever strongly ex- 

 plosive tendencies are checked, or strongly obstructive 

 conditions overcome. The dme hien nee, the child of the 

 sunshine, at whose birth the fairies made their gifts, does 

 not need much of it in his life. The hero and the neurotic 

 subject, on the other hand, do. Now our spontaneous way 

 of conceiving the effort, under all these circumstances, is a» 

 an active force adding its strength to that of the motives 

 which ultimately prevail. AVhen outer forces impinge upon 

 a body, we say that the resultant motion is in the line of 

 least resistance, or of greatest traction. But it is a curious 

 fact that our spontaneous language never speaks of volition 

 with effort in this way. Of course if we proceed a priori 

 and define the line of least resistance as the line that is 

 followed, the physical law must also hold good in the mental 

 sphere. But we feel, in all hard cases of volition, as if the 

 line taken, when the rarer and more ideal motives prevail, 

 were tlie line of greater resistance, and as if the line of 

 coarser motivation were the more pervious and easy one, 

 even at the very moment when we refuse to follow it. He 

 who under the surgeon's knife represses cries of pain, or 

 he who exposes himself to social obloquy for duty's sake, 

 feels as if he were following the line of greatest temporary 

 resistance. He speaks of conquering and overcoming his 

 impulses and temptations. 



But the sluggard, the drunkard, the coward, never talk 

 of their conduct in that way or say they resist their energy, 

 overcome their sobriety, conquer their courage, and so 

 forth. If in general we class all springs of action as pro- 

 pensities on the one hand and ideals on the other, the sen- 

 sualist never says of his behavior that it results from a 

 victory over his ideals, but the moralist always speaks of 

 his as a victory over his propensities. The sensualist uses 

 terms of inactivity, says he forgets his ideals, is deaf to 



