Wesley Corpus

Let us now weigh the main argument on which this author builds the melancholy hypothesis of necessity: “Actions neces sarily arise from their several motives: Therefore, all human actions are necessary.” Again: “In all cases the choice must be determined by that motive which appears the best upon the whole. But motives are not under our power. Man is passive in receiving impressions of things, according to which the last judgment is necessarily formed. This the will necessarily obeys, and the outward action necessarily follows the will.” Let us take this boasted argument in pieces, and survey it part by part. (1) “Motives are not under our power.” This is not universally true: Some are, some are not. That man has a strong motive to run his neighbour through, namely, violent anger; and yet the action does not necessarily follow. Often it does not follow at all; and where it does, not neces sarily: He might have resisted that motive. (2) “In all cases the choice must be determined by that motive which appears the best upon the whole.” This is absolutely false. It is flatly contrary to the experience of all mankind. Who may not say on many occasions, Video meliora 2* I know what I do, is not “best upon the whole?” (3.) “Man is passive in receiving the impressions of things.” Not altogether. Even here much depends on his own choice. In many cases he may or may not receive the impression; in most he may vary it greatly. (4.) “According to these his last judgment is necessarily formed.” Nay, this too depends much upon his choice. Sometimes his first, sometimes his last, judgment, is according to the impressions which he has received; and frequently it is not. (5.) “This the will necessarily obeys.” Indeed it does not. The mind has an intrinsic power of cutting off the connexion between the judgment and the will. (6) “And the outward action necessarily follows the will.” Not so. The thing I would, I do not; and the thing I would not, that I do. Whatever then becomes of the chain of events, this chain of argument has not one good link belonging to it. * This quotation from Ovid is thus translated by Tate : “I see my error, yet to ruin move.”-ED1T. 4.