Would you dethrone man, I am asked? No; I surrender to the behests of philosophy as fortified by the deductions of science. Years ago it was argued by Comte that, in social order, the higher must subordinate itself to the lower. That the organic finds itself controlled and limited by the inorganic world, and man has to work out his destiny in submission to all the necessities, physical, chemical and vital, which are pre-supposed in his existence. “The higher,” he continued, “can overcome the lower only by obedience; if it is to conquer, it must at least ‘stoop to conquer.’” And as was once stated by Doctor Conolly, “All the superiority of man, all those faculties which elevate and dignify him, this reasoning power, this moral sense, these capacities of happiness, these high aspiring hopes, are felt and enjoyed and manifested by means of the nervous system. Its injury weakens, its imperfections limit, its destruction ends them.” But, it may be asked, is not this a denial of “free-will?” Yes, as popularly understood. A “free-will,” in the metaphysical sense, is impossible. The conception is unknown to the best modern psychology. The abstract will, of certain metaphysicians, is a phantasm. Individual volitions, only, come within our actual experience. They have been generalized, by mental philosophers, into a self-existent, self-sustaining, and self-procreating entity. However, an abstraction is not an essence. Such men but tell us what a “free will” should be; that it exists has never been demonstrated. Again, the phenomenon “will” is now known to be transmitted from generation to generation. Heredity teaches that its energy and its weakness are connected with certain states of the organism. “We can no longer doubt the transmission takes place by means of the organs, and, in fact, that the ‘will’ is physiological.” Moreover, in a philosophical sense, the idea is “at war” with a uniform law of cause and effect. Chance events are inconceivable in a universe of causation. Freedom of the will, therefore, is a delusion. For ages men believed that the sun revolved around the earth, because it seemed to do so. A similar illusion is at the base of our ethical system, since we enjoy only the appearance of liberty. “Our apparent freedom consists in the absence of all physical restraints, and in our power to do as we please; but what we please to do depends upon our mental constitution and the circumstances in which we are placed.” The idea was beautifully expressed by Emerson in his poem “Fate.”