derstanding.

311. As for the parallel between the relation of the understanding to the
true and that of the will to the good, one must know that a clear and
distinct perception of a truth contains within it actually the affirmation
of this truth: thus the understanding is necessitated in that direction.
But whatever perception one may have of the good, the effort to act in
accordance with the judgement, which in my opinion forms the essence of the
will, is distinct from it. Thus, since there is need of time to raise this
effort to its climax, it may be suspended, and even changed, by a new
perception or inclination which passes athwart it, which diverts the mind
from it, and which even causes it sometimes to make a contrary judgement.
Hence it comes that our soul has so many means of resisting the truth which
it knows, and that the passage from mind to heart is so long. Especially is
this so when the understanding to a great extent proceeds only by faint
_thoughts_, which have only slight power to affect, as I have explained
elsewhere. Thus the connexion between judgement and will is not so
necessary as one might think.

312. M. Bayle goes on to say, with truth (p. 221): 'Indeed, it cannot be a
fault in man's soul that it has no freedom of indifference as regards good
in general. It would be rather a disorder, an inordinate imperfection, if
one could say truthfully: It is all one to me whether I am happy or
unhappy; I have no more determination to love the good than to hate it; I
can do both equally. Now if it is a praiseworthy and advantageous quality
to be determinate as regards good in general, it cannot be a fault if [315]
one is necessitated as regards each individual good recognized plainly as
for our good. It seems even as though it were a necessary conclusion, that
if the soul has no freedom of indifference as regards good in general, it
also has none in respect of particular goods which after due examination it
judges to be goods in relation to it. What should we think of a soul which,
having formed that judgement, had, and prided itself on having, the power
not to love these goods, and even to hate them, and which said: I recognize
clearly that these are goods for me, I have all the enlightenment necessary
on that point; nevertheless I will not love them, I will hate them; my
decision is made, I act upon it; it is not that any reason' (that is, any
other reason than that which is founded upon 'Such is my good