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trials of this life, the temptations it may be of the flesh, and the infirmities of the corruptible body which "presseth down the soul," be led to exclaim with St. Paul that he longs to depart and to be with Christ, which is much better-"that it is better to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" but he will surely go on with him to say, "not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon with our house, which is from Heaven" not that the soul may be freed from the body, but the body itself freed from the power of sin and death; for the conjunction of body and soul is as fully recognized by the divine as it can be by the physiologist, to 'be the condition necessary for the perfect action of both.

It is not, therefore, that the body, as such, is a clog to the soul, but that the body, in its present sinful and corruptible nature, is not an adequate instrument for that perfection of action, which the soul may attain in its full maturity; and that the temporary dissolution of the former is a step, in the divine economy, in its progress to a higher perfection. In explanation of death we are referred to the analogy of the germination of seeds"Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die."

Then, again, in the decline of life, as the mortal body becomes less and less capable of discharging even its present functions, we should naturally expect a concomitant failure in the manifestation of mental vigor, but this tells nothing against the idea that the capacity of the soul itself may be ever on the increase its development ever tending upwards to that higher part which it has to fill in the future life, as the animating spirit of the glorified body.

and mental actions are but twin concomitant results of the operation of a single essence that is, of the material substance of the brain and parts associated they must be held to be determined both alike by the laws regulating the course and succession of physical phenomena, while, if there are two agencies at work, though the final result must still be largely influenced by such laws, seeing that all our actions, while in the body, are so far the acts of the body itself, even those of a specially mental character, still, as the latter are not the acts of the body alone, but also of the soul, they must be farther influenced to some extent by its principles of action; and these principles- definite as they doubtless are may yet be different in many respects from the laws of physical action, and such as to give scope for that conditionality and power of selection which underlie our idea of free will and personal responsibility.

In such an alliance both of the partners must have their say, and if, on the one hand, we may plead the immutable operation of natural laws, on the other we must be answerable for the liberty allowed by the conditionality of moral law. If there are limits - variable or fixed-beyond which the will is powerless to coerce the organic functions of the brain, and if there are natural laws of nervous action, according to which it must be worked, within such limits and subject to such laws the cerebral mechanism may reasonably be held to be as much at the bidding of the animating spirit as the pen is under the command of the writer, the musical instrument of the player, or any other piece of machinery of its overseer. The hypothesis adopted-if, in a purely scientific point of view it must be so termed If these suggestions of grounds for our affords, we submit, by far the most feasiconviction of the distinctness of our spir- ble explanation of the many complex itual essence from all mere corporeal problems of social life; and this consideraction, are crudely put forward and defecation alone would warrant its assumption tively stated, it does but justify the reluc- on philosophical grounds, so long as all tance we expressed to enter on a topic that can be said on the other side is that which, though perhaps not to be left unno- no such demonstrative evidence can be ticed, can be satisfactorily dealt with only given of the separate existence of the by a master of the spiritual life while soul, as appears convincing to some of our even such a one might probably find him- opponents. self embarrassed by the inadequacy of human language, based as it is on sensible images, to express relations of so purely spiritual a kind.

On the most practical and matter-of-fact view of morals, however, the question before us has this important bearing, that it very sensibly influences our estimate of personal responsibility. If our corporeal

Concerning the limits, however, and the degree of responsibility in different cases, there remains much room for legitimate difference of opinion, which can be removed only, if at all, by a free and full discussion of the whole question. The influence of the bodily organization in determining the conduct and character and in modifying the power of self-control,

though it comes out more strikingly in many of the factors, and not to any indecases of insanity, is no doubt operative in pendent act of self-control affecting the some degree in all men; and it may be balance of the mind. Did we know all the freely allowed to affect the moral respon- facts and could we solve all the equations sibility of individuals in the sight of God. involved, the result would come out as rigidThe extent to which any court of jurispru-ly as a problem in astronomy, or any calcudence could admit such a plea must of course always be very restricted, but allowance ought certainly to be made in this way in forming our opinions of the conduct of others, for the sake of justice no less than of charity.

It is even still more important that we should form a right estimate of the amount of self-control which we have really in our own power, for there can be no doubt that lax views on this point, and the lack of energy which naturally results from them, are, as a matter of fact, the real causes of much of the misconduct and lawlessness that prevail in the world. It is not only, we should bear in mind, that a man's own disposition will be morally deteriorated by allowing himself in bad habits, over which directly or indirectly he could exercise any voluntary control, but that he may entail the evil results on generations yet unborn; for the balance of mind, on which character so much depends, may be conclusively shown to be influenced very greatly by the conformation and constitutional habit of body derived by hereditary transmission from his parents or even from more remote ancestors. In this sense at least it is a law certainly as wide as human nature itself, that the sins of the forefathers are visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.

lation in applied mathematics. It is freely admitted that different men will act differently in the same contingency, but this is not because one, by his personal will, aided by the grace of God, exerts greater moral control than another over the promptings of his animal nature, but because this animal nature is itself so far differently constituted that by the hereditary transmission from their ancestors, and by previous education and training in their own lifetime, the nervous processes give rise to different proclivities in different cases. Rejecting thus the idea of independent self-control, he consistently repudiates also that of moral responsibility. Guilt, of course, in such a view is but a meaningless word, and while social responsibility is admitted in so far that a certain recognition is extended to the salutary influence of penal discipline in preventing crime, punishment is held to be legitimate only as providing a deterring motive, and in no sense as vindicatory or called for by an abstract sense of justice.

It is allowed indeed that the old-fashioned figment of moral responsibility has done good service in its day:

How can men on each occasion be most powerfully instigated to seek good and ensue it, when the balance of personal desires and It is in his treatment of this determin- propensities is commonly on the opposite ing power of the will over character, that side? Clearly by inculcating in the most imDr. Maudsley's teaching on the subject pressive manner possible the doctrine of free appears to us most defective, from the will and responsibility, at the same time that one-sided view he takes of the question. are presented to them the strongest motives The will, according to Dr. Maudsley,- for moral action that can be fabricated — who in this seems to follow Hartley and namely, the most vivid pictures of the unHobbes, is nothing else than the appe-speakable joys of heaven as the reward of well tite or liking put in action after deliberation. Its deliberate character allows scope for the play of different impressions, all tending to influence the final result, which may come in consequence to be very different from what it would have been had the primary impulse passed at once into effect, as in the instinctive actions of the lower animals; but it is no less the necessary result of the combined operation of the several conditions of sensation and

feeling which have preceded. That the result cannot always be foreseen is owing merely to the complexity of the antecedent reactions surpassing our powers of calculation, and still more to our ignorance of

doing, and the endless torments of hell as the strain them at the critical moment by a powerpunishment of ill doing. In this way we conful motive to act rightly, and aim by enforcing the repetition of right acts to foster a habit of acting rightly and to work by degrees a better nature in them; for each moral act, by the law of nervous action which has already been illustrated largely, renders the next more easy, and so the nature is gradually modified. The process is really one of moral manufacture

...

Then the individual is said to have ac

quired the greatest strength and to manifest the most perfect freedom of will, because he is able to do right in the midst of ever so many temptations to do wrong; and thus the highest freedom of will is cleverly identified with the highest morality. Liberty is the voice of con

science; conscience is the voice of God, say | tive influences must be allowed in turn to the theologians.

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nous avons

But in the enlightenment of the end of the nineteenth century, changé tout cela". - as the Ultramontanes now say of the teaching of Bossuet - for

the writer continues:

It would appear then from what has been said, that the doctrine of free-will, like some

be largely due to the bias given to our mental constitution by hereditary transmission and personal training. What we contend for is, that over all these is the personal will, in the position, as it were, of a judge or one in authority - liable indeed, as is a judge, to solicitation from all sides, but morally bound also, like a judge, other doctrines that have done their work, and of equity, and free, that is competent, to do to decide according to abstract principles then, being no longer of any use, have undergone decay,... was necessary to promote so, if not by its own power, owing to the the evolution of mankind up to a certain stage. deterioration of our moral nature, yet by ... On the one side is the motive to do right, the help of divine grace, which is freely on the other side is the motive to do wrong- given to all who seek it. To those who the former more difficult, the latter more easy admit neither a personal God, nor a perto do; by proclaiming free-will, we strengthen sonal soul, all this is of course but foolthe former motive, while by proclaiming ne-ishness, but to such as maintain these cessity it is clear we should strengthen the tenets, this freedom of will, and supremacy latter motive in the unenlightened or inferior of conscience, are not only in full harmony person, who with short-sighted ignorance with their belief, but are necessary to give would gladly go the easy way of his passions, it full consistency. rather than the arduous way of his true welfare. The notion of free-will and its responsibilities was necessary, therefore, and perhaps still is, to make for him a higher necessity than the necessity of his passions, but it does not follow that it is necessary for him whom Confucius would have described as the sage or superior person, who looks to the endless consequences of his actions. To him the clear recognition of the reign of law in the human mind will furnish the strongest motiveters, this is perhaps the common state of matters. But it is no less true that there to do right (pp. 419–421). are occasions in which after full delibera

It is not maintained that all our actions have this active voluntary character - not even all those in which we seem at first to be really following our own inclination. On many occasions it is true that we are passively led by the preponderating motives which affect us at the time; and in the case of what are called weak charac

and repulsions acting upon us, and make an anti-impulsive effort, as when from the love of God we deny ourselves an immediate gratification from an indulgence, in which we do not perceive any remote evil consequent to ourselves. If the will does indeed necessarily follow the stronger motive, we are at least so far free in the matter that we have the power of intensifying one motive at will, by fixing the attention on it, and so making that motive stronger for the time.*

It is certainly rather singular to find so tion we elect to follow a course which we zealous a champion of the truth against perceive to be in opposition to the resultant the arbitrary dicta of "theologians " seri-impulse of all the involuntary attractions ously maintaining the utility-nay, the necessity of basing the education of the bulk of mankind on a doctrine which he goes on to characterize as "an effete superstition, the offshoot of ignorance, mischievously drawing men's minds away from the beneficial recognition of the universal reign of law, and of their solemn responsibilities under the stern necessity of universal causation." On our part we are far from questioning that there is in his argument a certain element of truth. While his language is occasionally needlessly offensive, and his allusive use of Scriptural expressions in contradiction to their obvious meaning is certainly far from edifying, to the substance of most of his positive statements we should not in fact care to make objection.

The actions which result from the will may be admitted to differ from those of an automatic and instinctive nature very much on account of their more deliberate character, that is, in the greater number of motive influences which have had a share in their production, and these mo

That we are liable to fallacies in regard to our freedom of will, as in other matters, is not to be denied. There is much truth in Dr. Maudsley's remark, that a man often thinks himself most free, when he is most a slave. "When is it that man is most persuaded that he speaks or acts with full freedom of will? When he is drunk, or mad, or is dreaming. . . . Passion notoriously perverts the judgment, warping it this way or that." Yet there is surely no more reason why our conviction of our

See Mivart, "Lessons from Nature," pp. 121, 124.

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general freedom of will should be set aside | to the association of a distinct entity corby our liability to such fallacies, than that responding to the spirit of man. The our reliance should be shaken in the gen- popular opinion, however, is probably still eral trustworthiness of our bodily senses that of Cudworth: by the well-known illusions to which they also are occasionally liable.

In Dr. Carpenter's treatment of this subject, we find a larger and sounder estimate taken of the extent to which we have, directly or indirectly, in our power, not only the formation of our own character, but also an influence in modelling that of others by judicious discipline, especially in the early years of life, and of our consequent responsibilities in both these respects. One point indeed we miss, which seriously impairs its practical value, in that no account is taken of the natural depravity of the human heart, which lies even more than mere ignorance at the root of our failures, or of those remedies and helps which Christianity provides to meet the case. We do not of course mean to object to a treatise on the philosophy of mind that it keeps clear of the theological bearing of points which it brings before us, but neither may we admit that, apart from the religious aspect of the case, we can have either the moral questions treated exhaustively, or any rule of practice laid down which will be of itself a sufficient guide for the regulation

of our conduct.

The conclusion then to which all we know on this subject clearly points is the composite aspect of human nature-composite not only in the character of the phenomena exhibited, physical and mental, but also in the agency concerned in their production. In so far this conclusion is quite in harmony with the popular conception of man consisting of soul and body, entities distinct in nature, but acting and reacting on each other; both of them in the ordinary course of life being concerned in all we do, say, or think, but so associated together as to constitute a perfect unity in all our actions.

We use here advisedly the term "composite" rather than "dual," for though man's mental nature obviously includes in its fulness the lower powers of mere animal life, and the threefold term, spirit, soul, and body, is used by St. Paul to express the completeness of his being, yet, as we have seen, there is an agreement among some of the representative authors of very different schools in regarding the so-called mental action of the lower animals as a mere property of the living fabric, or as the manifestation of a special modification of force, rather than as due

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They who will attribute life, sense, cogitawithout some footsteps of reason many times, tion, consciousness, and self-enjoyment, not to blood and brains, mere organized bodies in brutes, will never be able clearly to demonstrate the incorporeity and immortality of human souls.*

present, but in human nature, at least, we This question does not lie before us at do contend for such a spiritual element, though, in common with all who have viewed the subject from the corporeal side, we feel constrained also to admit that there is a necessary accompaniment of cerebral action in all ordinary mental operation. As for this very reason we can have no such proof of the existence of a spiritual, as distinct from the corporeal factor of our nature, founded on its separate activity, as would appear sufficient to one determined to base the case on sensible demonstration, our arguments for the existence of the soul, as distinct from the body, must rest mainly on metaphysical grounds, and on our consciousness of moral and spiritual relations evidence, indeed, which is liable to be a kind of ignored by those who from neglect or wilfulness look only at one side of the sistible force by such as give a candid question, but which will be found of irreconsideration to all its bearings, and the repudiation of which has invariably led sooner or later to the most fearful errors in moral practice, and in all the relations of sociall ife.

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dawn, when it broke, invariably showed the same disconsolate prospect, and the expedition had to be postponed.

He must come up to the castle instead; and Tom's "You'll look us up in the morning, at all events," was the understood conclusion to every meeting.

"Mr. Blundell."

"Blundell!" said Tom, putting down the crook, and looking at her; “what on earth do you mean?"

It had all been a mistake; Blundell was as sound a Protestant as any one among them he had only used the word pen

"Could anything be more tiresome?"ance in jest. moaned Elsie, when on the fifth day the heavens still gloomed as heavily as ever. "He will go away soon. We shall never have our day- our delightful day: we shall look back to this time all our lives, and say, like the emperor of old, we have 'lost a day.'

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"And it is so calm, too," murmured, in gentler accents, Pauline.

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Quite perfect," added her brother; "just the right kind of day for a sail. Not a breath stirring anywhere. We should be lying opposite the Point from morning till night, drinking champagne and talking metaphysics, eh, Polly?"

"I suppose there is hardly enough wind I had forgotten that."

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Enough? Do you imagine Blundell and I would stagnate on shore all this time, if there had been enough to puff out a nautilus-shell? He is regularly stuck here, that is why he is so thankful to come up day after day. He'll be off with the first breeze that suits."

"It will be very mean of him if he is," said Elsie. "After saying so much about our going. We may never have such a chance again."

"You can't expect him to stay for that. He is on his way to the Lewes, and only put in here for the Sunday. He is as strict as a parson about that, you knowa precious deal stricter than many a parson would be, too. It is of no use Aunt Ella's asking him to dinner on Sunday, by the way he would have to do penance half the night after it."

"Is he a Roman Catholic?" cried Elsie, opening her eyes.

"Something very like one," reflected Pauline: "I did not think of that before. Such a religion would naturally commend itself to his mind, if it is as Tom says. How stupid of me not to find that out! He has given me every opportunity."

Tom had not answered, being intent on a curve in the shepherd's crook he was whittling out of a hazel-rod.

"Tom, why did you not tell us before?" "Tell you what?" holding the stick at arm's length before him.

"That he was a Roman Catholic." "That who was? What are you talking about?"

"Though I dare say he would like to say masses for Guy's soul," continued Tom. "He has never been heard to mention his name since the day he died; and you see he has broken with Chaworth and the whole lot of them. He is quite a reformed character, Polly. Take my blessing."

Elsie glanced at her cousin; but it was impossible to discern whether she heard or not.

"I wish he would take me off with him," began Tom, after a pause, during which he had been whittling most industriously. "How jolly it would be!" Silence.

"That is to say," he relented, "for a week or so. Of course I should come back here again. Why do you look so grave, Elsie?

"It would be such a disappointment." "Would it? Would it really, Elsie?" "So few yachts ever come here; and the ones that do, never belong to people we know. Once Mr. M'Phail offered to take us in his; but mamma said he was a shopman, and would not let us go. I did not care what he was; I would have gone, and so would Pauline. And now when mamma is quite pleased and willing-she is going herself if her cold is no worse it is rather hard."

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I am sorry for you," said Tom, seeking to hide his chagrin under the guise of pleasantry. Perhaps, however, it is as well that you are not particular as to your company · a shopman or a scamp you will be all the more easily pleased.' "Tom! What do you mean?"

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"Pauline knows. She does not mind, you see, so why should you? She, like a wise woman, is content to take the gifts the gods provide ' her, and ask no questions."

Elsie looked from one to the other, scanning the two faces, between which there was so strong an outward likeness, so little real resemblance.

There was the same rich russet-brown hair, deep-set eyes, delicately cut nose and chin, and warm color in the cheek - but here it ended. It penetrated no deeper. It was lost in the expression of the eye and lip lost in every word and thought.

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