FREE WILL. 



299 



Progress in general is not however to be denied to the 

 animal. Who can question that some canine races, of 

 which the descent from stupid jackals and wolves is as 

 good as certain, have raised themselves mentally far above 

 their ancestry? Who, that has read the comprehensive 

 investigations of H. Miiller, the brother of our Fritz 

 Miiller, can doubt that the honey-bee, as it gradually 

 attained its bodily advantages and peculiarities, devel- 

 oped likewise the higher mental powers, corresponding 

 with the more minute and complex organism of her 

 brain? Man — such is the thesis we propound, reserving 

 the question of language — differs from many animals only 

 in the degree and means of progress. It is therefore 

 unscientific to contrast humanity and animality in the 

 abstract. 



Man alone, it is further maintained, has a free will. 

 In so far as the more highly developed man acts in 

 accordance with philosophical, moral and religious prin- 

 ciples, for which he is indebted to education and in- 

 struction — in so far as he is able to .apprehend ideals, 

 and strive after them with his own mental and bodily 

 power, this command of will may be readily admitted, 

 although we know that this '" freedom " is likewise the 

 collective result of natural causes. But the more simple 

 and uniform the conditions of life, the more do the deal- 

 ings of men lose the semblance and character of free- 

 dom, and the more does the individual act after the will 

 of the tribe — I might say,- of the herd — that is to say, 

 instinctively. In this case actions are not performed 

 even with the astounding premeditation with which some 

 few happily organized individual animals of some few 

 species turn the circumstances to account with apparent- 



