McDougall is nothing if not cautious. His subtile mind foresees every objection which can be made, and tries to forestall it. The result is a labyrinth in which even a professor, lacking a golden thread from the head of Ariadne to guide him, must--and does--frequently get lost. And yet all that this famous definition actually means is that we are born in such a way that we act in such a way. As to whether the way is marked by physical roads or by roads which are something else; as to whether these roads are bequeathed to us by our ancestors, or whether we just have them, McDougall does not commit himself. But he implies that there is something in us which pays attention or does not pay attention, and that this something does not always follow a road even if it sees it. Sometimes it merely wants to follow, but forbears. Each road, we learn as we continue to read from this, his “Outline of Psychology,”[32] has a lure of its own--as roads are apt to have--something which he calls the “hormic impulse,” or “hormic faculty.” And sometimes, instead of having it always acting from the roads themselves and moving us with a pull, he seems to think of it as in or behind us and giving us a push. In its latter position it can easily be mistaken for a will--even for a free will. To experience an impulse to act, and then not to act as the impulse would have you--is not that to be free to act as you like? Yes; but what determines the like? Has the slave-driver gone, or has he merely stepped into the background? A hormic impulse is a “striving” impulse. We are born with these impulses, therefore they are “instincts.” William James gave us twenty-four--the instincts of climbing, imitation, emulation, rivalry, pugnacity, anger, resentment, sympathy, hunting, fear, approbation, acquisitiveness, kleptomania, constructiveness, play, curiosity, sociability, shyness, cleanliness, modesty, shame, love, jealousy, parental love. Dr. Watson says he has been able to find none of them. Dr. McDougall rejects some and discovers several new ones, leaving thirteen in all--which was for him an unlucky number. Instead of being free, we have now thirteen masters, always wrangling among themselves, it is true, but never consulting us about their decisions. If we hesitate to obey one of them it is only because some other happens for the moment to be stronger. Or we are mastered by a combination; by a bloc. If we decide to move from the city to the country, it is probably a farm bloc. According to this theory, a sufficiently knowing person could calculate your conduct in advance.