he estimate of reason, to direct his actions:
but this generous and exalted faculty involves him in awful
responsibility. The same light which discovers to him that which is good
and lawful, also exposes its opposite, which is evil and forbidden; and
the nature of good and evil, as it forms the foundation of human
institutions, has been derived from our experience of their effects, or
a calculation of their tendencies. The will of man, therefore, is as
free as his experience dictates, and his reason urges to action: yet,
that he should often act in opposition to both, is as lamentable as
certain: in the transport of immediate gratification, or in the hopes of
enjoyment, precept ceases to influence, and example loses its warning.

Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] In some of these instances, where the will has ceased to influence
the muscles, the due sensibility of the nerves has
remained.--Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. ix. p. 8.

[13] So little does the infant appear to possess any control over those
organs which afterwards become subject to voluntary influence, that it
may be sufficient to remark the flow of saliva, of urine, and the more
solid evacuations, are subject to no restraint, and for some time are
passed with little or no consciousness: even the motions which are
excited in the limbs, appear to be spasmodic, rather than the effect of
direction.

[14] Vide Darwin's Thesis de Spectris Ocularibus.

ON THOUGHT OR REFLECTION.

Those recollected objects, which have been transmitted by the senses, or
which we have perceived by their means, are the subjects of our thoughts
or reflections; for these terms will be indifferently employed, as
designating the same faculty or process. The obvious meaning of the word
_reflection_, is the representation of any object in a mirror. This
term, so well understood in that department of natural philosophy named
optics, has been transferred to mind, in order to explain a process,
supposed to be similar. If, however, we examine the analogy, it will not
accord:--to produce reflection in the mirror, the object must be
present; in the mind, the reflection takes place when the object is
absent. Although the simile, strictly speaking, is imperfect, yet the
figure is beautiful, and, considering the metaphorical nature of
language, as applied to mental operations, the most natural and
appropriate that could have been selected; for,