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BOOK III. -- The Will

Lesson 85 - 1. Relations of the will Subdivisions - p.369

1. WE have now to speak of the power of volition the centre and source of free activity. Willing is distinguished from thinking and feeling in its positive and peculiar character by a reference to consciousness to that experience in which its phenomenal nature is laid open. It, moreover, bears a different relation to action from that of either of the other two, and this may be pointed out. It stands in the last, the most immediate connection with effort. Exertion is prompted by feeling, is anticipated arid guided by thought, is initiated and maintained by volition. While the motive lies back in the emotions, the final determination and executive impulse of free action are found in "the will. The intellect is instrumental and intermediate in its office. It presents objects to the feelings, and inquires into the means of their easiest, safest gratification.

The voluntary powers are simple as compared either with those of thought or feeling. Our emotions present by far the most numerous, complex and varied features of the mind. Our intellectual faculties are relatively few, yet exceedingly subtile in their inter-dependence and action. Our voluntary powers are yet more simple, and offer their chief difficulty in intrinsic character, in the problem of liberty. We shall first speak of the nervous system and of the functions of its several parts. Next we shall consider executive volitions, and later, the highest form of volition choice. The first division of volitions is into primary and executive volitions. The ultimate choice is that which presents the