But we all know that it is harder for one man than for another to be sober, or honest, or virtuous; and we all know that the sobriety, or honesty, or virtue of any man depends upon his temperament and training; that is to say, upon his heredity and his environment. How, then, can we believe that free will is outside and superior to heredity and environment? In the case of the slum children rescued by Dr. Baraado and others we know that had they been left in the slums their wills would have willed evil, and we know that when taken out of the slums their wills willed good. There was no change in the freedom of the will; the will that is free in Whitechapel is free in Manitoba. The difference was the environment. In Canada as in London the environment controlled the will. "What! Cannot a man be honest if he choose?" Yes, if he choose. But that is only another way of saying that he can be honest if his nature and his training lead him to choose honesty. "What! Cannot I please myself whether I drink or refrain from drinking?" Yes. But that is only to say you will not drink because it pleases _you_ to be sober. But it pleases another man to drink, because his desire for drink is strong, or because his self-respect is weak. And you decide as you decide, and he decides as he decides, because you are _you_, and he is _he_; and heredity and environment made you both that which you are. And the sober man may fall upon evil days, and may lose his self-respect, or find the burden of his trouble greater than he can bear, and may fly to drink for comfort, or oblivion, and may become a drunkard. Has it not been often so? And the drunkard may, by some shock, or some disaster, or some passion, or some persuasion, regain his self-respect, and may renounce drink, and lead a sober and useful life. Has it not been often so? And in both cases the freedom of the will is untouched: it is the change in the environment that lifts the fallen up, and beats the upright down. We might say that a woman's will is free, and that she could, if she wished, jump off a bridge and drown herself. But she cannot _wish_. She is happy, and loves life, and dreads the cold and crawling river. And yet, by some cruel turn of fortune's wheel, she may become destitute and miserable; so miserable that she hates life and longs for death, and _then_ she can jump into the dreadful river and die. Her will was free at one time as at another. It is the environment that has wrought the change. Once she could not wish to die: now she cannot wish to live. The apostles of free will believe that all men's wills are free. But a man can only will that which he is able to will. And one man is able to will that which another man is unable to will. To deny this is to deny the commonest and most obvious facts of life.