UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
affair than the air, yet it cannot transcend its own 
limitations. You and I are free to act according to 
our natures, modified by our training and by the 
times in which we live. This modification is not 
voluntary, at least only in part. Our times, our 
environment, our proclivities, shape us insensibly 
and involuntarily. How, then, is the will free? 
A scientific analysis shows that it is not free 
when looked at objectively, but free when looked 
at subjectively. We do not ordinarily feel the bonds 
of our own natures. In the moral order we are 
free; we are unconscious of restraint or control. 
In our own thought we seem to do what we like, 
though what we like has been determined by forces 
or conditions far older than we are. What we like 
and dislike are inherent in our own natures, and 
with our own natures — our mental and spiritual 
constitutions — we have had little to do. With our 
physical natures likewise we have had little to do, 
and how closely our mental and spiritual make-ups 
are dependent upon the physical, we are coming 
more and more to realize. 
We like a fine day because we thrive best on a 
fine day, but all fine days would grow monotonous, 
and we should sigh for cloud and storm. We like 
kindness, gentleness, good nature, a cheerful spirit, 
because these things are conducive to our well-being. 
We prefer truth to falsehood, because our nature 
demands it. 
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