454 THE PENN MONTHLY. [June. 
While then inheritance does not secure the performance of 
altruistic acts, appetent affections may be so increased by accu- 
mulation in descent as to become uncontrollable, so that will either 
does not come into existence, or is extinguished, so far as regards 
those affections. In such a situation there is no such equivalency 
between opposing motives as gives opportunity for the will, the ex- 
perience of appetent pleasure being too strong to allow of hesi- 
tancy in the face of vague representations of imaginary -conse- 
quences on the other side. Even in highly intelligent men, to 
whom consequences are best known, knowledge may be thrust 
from consciousness, by strong feeling in favor of one alternative 
at the moment of action. 
VII. CONSEQUENCES. 
It is now well to consider how far an automatic mind has any 
claim to personality or individuality, as generally understood. 
From the usual stand-point, a being without “ liberty,” or will prop- 
erly so called, is without character, and is in so far a nonentity. 
Even the character of the Deity cannot escape this destructive 
analysis; for according to Spinoza, if He is good, but a single line - 
of action, without alternatives, lies open to God, if He be at the 
same time omniscient. All this is changed if the element of spon- 
taneity in character be pre-supposed. The existence of such a 
quality in man renders foresight of its decisions in some cases no 
more than a calculation of chances, and in other cases impossible; 
thus offering the only conceivable limit to omniscience, and hence 
to omnipotence. And as we regard the goodness of God as the 
anchor of the universe, if that goodness be in some respect incon- 
sistent with omnipotence, we are strengthened if we discover that 
there is ground for correcting our traditional suppositions in regard 
to the latter. Can we not find this ground in a liberty or freedom 
which is the condition of what we suppose, in the absence of 
knowledge, to be the characteristic of the highest class of con- 
scious existences? 
