IN THE REALM OF MIND. 351 



their own unreasonable nature. The truth is, 

 that if the human Will can be described as un- 

 changeable, then there is no such thing as change- 

 ability even conceivable in thought. There is no 

 contrast so absolute between any two different 

 forms of Matter, as there is between two different 

 states of the same Mind. There is no transition 

 in Nature from one physical condition to another 

 so absolute or so radical as the transition to which 

 Human Character is subject when it passes under 

 the power of new convictions. There is no change 

 like the change from hatred to affection, from vice 

 to virtue, from evil to good. And this change in 

 Mind is the efficient cause of a whole cycle of other 

 changes among the phenomena which the human. 

 Will can and does alter, regulate, and control. 



There is, then, not much real difficulty after 

 all in disengaging the great facts of our own 

 Free Will from the verbal confusions of the Posi- 

 tive Philosophy. Nor will the same methods of 

 solution fail us when we apply them to the 

 further question, — How far, and in what sense, 

 are our own volitions themselves subject to Law 

 — that is, to the influence of Adjusted Forces ? 



