I will take, in illustration of the above remarks, a single example--a
case with which I became so familiarly acquainted, that I feel perfectly
safe in vouching for the truth of the statements which I am about to
make. I knew a boy who, up to the age of ten or twelve years, was under
the influence of a most ungovernable temper--a temper easily and quickly
excited, and which, when excited, rendered him perfectly desperate.
Seldom, if ever, was he known to yield in a conflict, however superior
in strength his antagonist might be. Death was always deliberately
preferred to submission. During this period, he often reflected upon his
condition, and frequently wished that it was otherwise. Still, with
melancholy deliberation, he as often said to himself, I never can and
never shall subdue this temper. At the close of this period, as he was
reflecting upon the subject again, he made up his mind, with perfect
fixedness of purpose, that, to the control of that temper, he would
never more yield. The Will rose up in the majesty of its power, and
assumed the reins of self-government, in the respect under
consideration. From that moment, that temper almost never, even under
the highest provocations, obtained the control of the child. A total
revolution of mental developments resulted. He afterwards became as
distinguished for natural amiability and self-control, in respect to his
temper, as before he had been for the opposite spirit. This total
revolution took place from mere prudential considerations, without any
respect whatever to moral obligation.
Now suppose we attempt to account for these distinct and opposite
developments of character--developments exhibited by the same
individual, in these two periods--by an exclusive reference to natural
propensities and external influences. What a totally inadequate and
false account should we give of the facts presented! That individual is
just as conscious, that it was the element of Free Will that produced
this revolution, and that when he formed the determination which
resulted in that revolution, he might have determined differently, as he
is, or ever has been, of any mental states whatever. All the facts,
also, as they lie out before us, clearly indicate, that if we leave out
of the account the voluntary element, those facts must remain wholly
unexplained, or a totally wrong explanation of them must be given.
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