IX 



REASON AND PREDISPOSITION 



rpHAT most men in the formation of their opin- 

 -*- ions are governed more by predisposition or 

 unconscious bent and tendency than by reason is 

 obvious enough. Indeed, reason is the faculty by 

 which we seek to justify the course of this deeper 

 seated predetermining force or bent. We gravitate 

 naturally to this opinion or to that, to conservatism 

 or to radicalism, to realism or to idealism, and we 

 seek for reasons that favor our course. Considera- 

 tions that are of great force with certain types of 

 mind are of little or no force with certain other 

 types. Reasons that confirm what we already be- 

 lieve or want to believe, how forcible they are ! 

 But if they point the other way, how lightly we es- 

 teem them ! Reason is like the compass which the 

 sailor takes to sea with him and to which he con- 

 stantly refers in keeping his course, but which has 

 nothing to do in determining that course. Every 

 man goes his own way, and of the agents that deter- 

 mine him in any given direction, whether original 

 bent, inherited traits, the influence of his training 

 or of his environment, he is but dimly conscious ; 

 his reason is the conscious instrument by which he 

 tries to steer on his predetermined way. 



