Such is the importance of the subject, however, that a more extended and
particular consideration of it is demanded. In the further prosecution
of the argument upon the subject, we will--
I. In the first place, contemplate the position, that the phenomena of
the Will are subject to the laws of Necessity. In taking this position
we are at once met with the following palpable and insuperable
difficulties.
1. The conviction above referred to--a conviction which remains proof
against all apparent demonstrations to the contrary. We may pile
demonstration upon demonstration in favor of the doctrine of Necessity,
still, as the mind falls back upon the spontaneous affirmations of its
own Intelligence, it finds, in the depths of its inner being, a higher
demonstration of the fact, that that doctrine is and must be false--that
man is not the agent which that doctrine affirms him to be. In the
passage already cited, and which I will take occasion here to repeat,
the writer has, with singular correctness, mapped out the unvarying
experience of the readers of Edwards on the Will. "Even the reader," he
says, "who is scarcely at all familiar with abstruse science, will, if
he follow our author attentively, be perpetually conscious of a vague
dissatisfaction, or latent suspicion, that some fallacy has passed into
the train of propositions, although the linking of syllogisms seems
perfect. This suspicion will increase in strength as he proceeds, and
will at length condense itself into the form of a protest against
certain conclusions, notwithstanding their apparently necessary
connection with the premises." What higher evidence can we have that
that treatise gives a false interpretation of the facts of universal
consciousness pertaining to the Will, than is here presented? Any theory
which gives a distinct and true explanation of the facts of
consciousness, will be met by the Intelligence with the response,
"That's true; I have found it." Any theory apparently supported by
adequate evidence, but which still gives a false interpretation of such
facts, will induce the internal conflict above described--a conflict
which, as the force of apparent demonstration increases, will, in the
very centre of the Intelligence, "condense itself into the form of a
protest against the conclusions presented, notwithstanding their
apparently necessary connection with the premises." The falsity of the
doctrine of Necessity is a first truth of the universal Intelligence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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