UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
than we are, and which works over us and through 
us. In another sense we are absolutely free, because 
that nature is vital within us and is the pith and 
marrow of our own wills. We cannot separate our- 
selves from the world of forces that surround us, and 
set up on our own account as independent centres of 
energy, but what we call our wills give us power in 
a measure to direct and modify the very nature of 
which we form a part. 
Nature works us cunningly as a machine is worked 
by external forces, and yet we know it not. How 
sure we are, for instance, that we draw the air into 
our lungs when we breathe, as literally as we put 
the food into our mouths! The universal mechanical 
principle involved, in other words, the involuntary 
nature of our breathing, we never suspect. Can we 
not breathe fast or slow, deeply or superficially, 
practice abdominal breathing or chest breathing, or 
even inhibit breathing for a minute or more? How 
free the act seems to be, and yet the chest is a 
bellows over which our wills have but slight control. 
Our freedom in breathing, as in many other acts, is 
freedom inside of a stern necessity. We are free 
inside of the iron circle of fate; or, to use a still 
better image, we are free to move inside the ship, or 
on the train that is carrying us along. We are free 
to obey our natures, our spontaneous promptings, 
but all these things are rings of fate around us. 
They bear us along, but we can move a little in 
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