object. Very often these extreme antipathies are directed in the defence of what gives no extraordinary sensation of delight, as when they are let loose upon the violators of some venerated ceremonial, having nothing but usage to commend it intrinsically, and deriving an extrinsic support through the inflammation of these modes of antipathy. The repulsion of the Jewish and Mahometan minds to the pig is a case in point.

So much for the consideration of Ends, or Motives, under the various modifications that they undergo. Present pleasure or pain, future and therefore conceived pleasures or pains, aggregated ends, intermediate and derivative ends, and, finally, impassioned or exaggerated ends,-act on the volition, each according to distinct laws that present no vital exception to the motor efficacy of the two great opposing states of the conscious mind, as assumed throughout the preceding exposition.

11. The point now reached in the development of the general subject is this. In the foregoing chapters, we have traced the rise and progress of the executive part of the will, through the guidance of the great fundamental instinct that causes a present condition of delight or suffering to sustain or arrest a present action. We have seen in what manner experience and association establish channels of communication between the separate feelings and the actions demanded to satisfy them, so as to evoke at once a dormant exertion. Farther, it appears that the intelligence represents, more or less vividly, feelings that are merely impending, whereby the will is roused in almost the same way as by an actual sensation. Our most protracted labours and most incessant solicitudes have reference to what is only looked forward to. The animal pursued maintains its flight through the livelong day, suffering and moved only by an idea. Every step that we take from morn to night is biassed or directed by some foreseen pain or pleasure; or if an intermediate end is the stimulus, the force of that is derived from some ultimate sensibility of our nature, which can live in the remembrance as well as operate in the actual impression.

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Having thus traced out the fully-formed executive, and a series of motives capable of impelling it into action, we may be said to have given an account, however imperfect, of the essential phenomena of volition, as they appear in the life of men and animals. There are, however, a number of applications of the general doctrines, interesting in themselves, and serving to elucidate the theory. Indeed, one whole department of the subject still remains untouched, and that perhaps the most fruitful both in vexed problems and in practical considerations. I mean the conflicts of volition. The motives that influence living beings are so numerous, that we should expect beforehand the occurrence of frequent collisions, when of course either no result ensues, or one of the forces gives way. This leads to the denominating of some motor states as stronger than others. A scale of motives is constructed, with reference to individuals, or classes of sentient beings, according to the relative power of stimulating the executive, as tested by the actual encounter. The inner life of every one is a sort of battle ground, or scene of incessant warfare; and the issues of those recurring contests are often very momentous both to the person's own self and to other beings. The estimate that we form of any creature as an agent, depends upon the motives that predominate in the actions of that creature. The training of the young has a principal reference to the development of certain motives into superiority over the rest. In short, the great departments of Duty, Education, and the Estimate of Character, centre in considerations relative to the rank assigned to certain motives in the outgoings of the voluntary executive. Accordingly, it is necessary for us to set forth these conflicts of the will in some degree of detail.

1.

WHE

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONFLICT OF MOTIVES.

HEN two states of feeling come together, if they are of the same nature, we have a sum total-as when the occurrence of two pleasures gives a greater pleasure. When a pain concurs with a pleasure, we find, as a matter of fact, that the one can neutralize the other. An agreeable relish, in the shape of some sweet taste, soothes the infant's irritated mind; and all through life we apply the grateful to submerge the disagreeable. In the conflict of the two, one will be lost and the other lowered in its efficacy; the first being pronounced the weaker, and the second the stronger. When the charm of the landscape makes one insensible to hunger and fatigue, the pleasurable part of the consciousness. is counted more powerful than the painful; if an interesting romance failed to subdue the same painful solicitations, we should say that the landscape gave more delight than the romance-a fair and usual mode of estimating the comparative influence of objects of delight. I am here assuming the volition as dormant the while, and describing what happens in the meeting of opposite states considered purely as Feeling. Nor is this a mere hypothetical case. Many of our pains are counteracted by enjoyments, and never proceed to the stage of stimulating the will. We use by turns, according to circumstances, either mode of alleviation. A good deal depends here upon the individual constitution; some from having great excess of voluntary energy, deal with suffering by active measures of removal and prevention; others, more lethargic, and developed principally on the side of the emotional manifestations, seek to overcome misery by

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frequenting the sources of delight, and indulging in a various and soothing expression of woe. The contrast of the two characters is unmistakeable.

2. We will consider first the conflict of a voluntary stimulus with the Spontaneous impulses considered in their primitive character, as growing out of the purely physical conditions of the nervous and muscular systems. In this respect, spontaneity is a separate power to the very last. After every night's repose, and after the nourishment of a meal, the active organs are charged with power ready to explode in any direction. I will not reiterate the proofs already produced on this head. Suffice it to say, that this element of our activity is brought into frequent collision with the genuine impulses of the will, those derived from pleasures and pains. The discharge of exuberant activity is opposed by such motives as urge one to remain in stillness and confinement. The conflict is seen when the healthy boy has a hurt, or a sore, rendering it painful to join the sports of his playmates. It is seen when the horse or the hound is kept in check, in the fulness of the morning's vigour. The more active the animal, or the more highly-conditioned in all that regards health, nourishment, and preparatory repose, the greater is this explosive tendency that carries it into action without any reference to ends, or motives of the true voluntary character; and the greater is the stimulus, whether of smarting pain or pleasurable charm, necessary to check the outburst. To reconcile the young to a day of indoor confinement, we have to cater largely for their amusement. Whatever any one's peculiar activity consists in, a considerable force of motive has to be supplied in order to restrain the exercise of it when the organs are fully refreshed. It is so with mind as well as with body, with the exercise of the manual and intellectual powers alike. Long restraint prepares the way for a furious demonstration at the moment of liberty. The conflicts thus arising are among the pains of early discipline, for it is impossible to reconcile the process of education with the free discharge of all the centres of power exactly at the moment

of their plenitude. Some part of the irksomeness of every professional pursuit, of every continuous undertaking, and the fulfilment of every course of duty, is due to the same cause. In so far as we have the regulation of our daily life in our own hands, we endeavour to suit our times of active exertion to those periods of natural vigour; but this adjustment will often fail; we are obliged to restrain the flow of power when at its height, and force it into play when at the lowest ebb. The irregular operations of the soldier's life continually bring about these crosses, whence, among other reasons, arises the need of that stringency of painful discipline peculiar to the military system. After a lapse of time, a second nature growing up, renders the subjection of the spontaneity less arduous, but the physical fact remains, that at certain stated times each organ attains a fulness of power, and a readiness for action, not possessed at other times, and demanding a certain counteracting motive to withhold it from proceeding to act. The very same thing is true of the spontaneity bred, not of repose and nourishment, but of an exciting cause, as the infection of a multitude, or of some other powerful example. Such, also, is the nature of a passionate stimulus, as fear; and such the morbid persistence growing out of fatigue carried beyond the point of repose. It is of no consequence what is the origin of the current that sets in strongly to rouse the various members into action. If we would neutralize it, we must provide some adequate counteractive in the form of an incitement to the will, and we measure the strength of the spontaneity according to the strength of the pain, or the pleasure, found equal to checking it. Sometimes the stream gets beyond all ordinary bounds, and is better left to exhaust itself. For after all, it is the same nervous system that has to bear the cost of the conquering agency.

3. The struggle that arises when we goad an exhausted system into action, is an interesting study in various respects. We see in this case the extreme importance of physical condition. It is not simply repugnance to the pain arising from working under fatigue, but a positive inaptitude to exertion,