IN THE REALM OF MIND. 349 



sense upon some artificial meaning being attached 

 to the word "changeable." A Will under the 

 guidance of some settled principle — that is to say, 

 following habitually some prevailing motives — 

 might, by a certain licence of language, be called 

 an unchangeable Will. But this has nothing to 

 do with that kind of changeability which can alone 

 concern the power of altering and controlling ma- 

 terial phenomena. Stability of character, whether 

 moral or purely intellectual, is not only compat- 

 ible with a variable Will, but it is inseparably 

 connected with it. No man can pursue one rule 

 of conduct under changing conditions unless he 

 himself retains his own capacities of change. He 

 cannot control phenomena without changing them, 

 and he cannot change phenomena without chang- 

 ing his own course of action ; and a change in the 

 course of action is a change in the course of Will. 



That which is really at the bottom of all this 

 ambiguity of language, is a constant endeavour to 

 get rid altogether of an essential element in the 

 very idea of Will, — to reduce it to something dif- 

 ferent from that which we all know and feel it 

 to be. The word Will is indeed retained in the 



