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are directly or indirectly at cross purposes with it. Thus one whose general pursuit is that of pleasure, gives way transiently to the claims of right, and one usually obedient to duty, for a time, tarns aside under some peculiar temptation. Of these choices, practically there are many; and while their moral bearing is most important, as choices they present no points of particular interest. Life is more frequently expended under the impulse of general choices, not assuming the character of a single, ultimate choice, though as certainly as such a choice, throwing action into one direction and under desultory choices, bending without reversing the current of the soul. Thus actions flow onward, submitting to a gravitation they may not have recognized, and yet, in never-ending circuits and turnings, betraying the influence of the passing hour.

Lesson 99 - 2. Choice - p.401

2. Passing, then, these distinctions in the relations of volitions rather than in their character, we have only to consider simple choice, the primary act of the will, the chief expression of spontaneous power. We shall speak first of what is involved in this notion of free-will, and later, of the proof of its existence. As liberty is a primary, simple relation, we must define it by cutting it off from other things, by denying of it those qualities which have become attached to it from abroad, reflected upon it from the physical connections of the world below it, and then leave it to be understood and accepted by the intuitive grasp of the mind itself i.

Liberty is not, as some would have us believe, found in the absence of outside coercion. If this were liberty, the plant would be free in its growth; since this proceeds under no mechanical, external impulse, is the result of the action of inner forces. When we say that man is free, we do not, in the higher use of the word, mean to affirm that he is not bound or imprisoned. The ordinary significance of language makes this point sufficiently plain.