moralists, and theologians
followed up the theme; and the appeal to the pride of will may be said
to be a standing engine of moral suasion. This originating of a point of
honour or dignity in connection with our Will has been the main lure in
bringing us into the jungle of Free-will and Necessity.

It is in the Alexandrian school that we find the next move in the
question. In Philo Judaeus, the good man is spoken of as free, the
wicked man as a slave. Except as the medium of a compliment to virtue,
the word "freedom" is not very apposite, seeing that, to the highest
goodness, there attaches submission or restraint, rather than liberty.

The early Christian Fathers (notably Augustine) advanced the question to
the Theological stage, by connecting it with the great doctrines of
Original Sin and Predestination; in which stage it shared all the
speculative difficulties attaching to these doctrines. The Theological
world, however, has always been divided between Free-will and Necessity;
and probably the weightiest names are to be found among the
Necessitarians. No man ever brought greater acumen into theological
controversy than did Jonathan Edwards; and he took the side of
Necessity.

Latterly, however, since the question has become one of pure
metaphysics, Free-will has been the favourite dogma, as being most
consonant to the dignity of man, which appears to be its chief
recommendation, and its only argument. The weight of reasoning is, I
believe, in favour of necessity; but the word carries with it a seeming
affront, and hardly any amount of argument will reconcile men to
indignity.

* * * * *

III. Another weakness of the human mind receives illustration from the
free-will controversy, and deserves to be noticed, as helping to account
for the prolonged existence of the dispute: I mean the disposition to
regard any departure from the accustomed rendering of a fact as denying
the fact itself. The rose under another name is not merely less sweet,
it is not a rose at all. Some of the greatest questions have suffered by
this weakness.

[ANALYSIS DOES NOT DESTROY THE FACT.]

The physical theory of matter that resolves it into _points of force_
will seem to many as doing away with matter no less effectually than the
Berkeleyan Idealism. A universe of inane mathematical points, attracting
and repelling each other, must appear to the ordinary mind a sorry
substitute for the firm-set earth, a