The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 05 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
to dishonour his own nature, as to equal fancy with understanding, or
the sensitive appetite with the reasonable will. A power of command
there is, without all question; though there be some doubt in what
faculty this command doth principally reside, whether in the will or in
the understanding. The true resolution is, that the directive command or
counsel is in the understanding; and the applicative command, or empire
for putting in execution of what is directed, is in the will. The same
answer serves for his second impropriety, about the word _elicite_. For
saith he, ‘as it is absurdly said, that to dance is an act allured, or
drawn by fair means, out of the ability to dance; so is it absurdly
said, that to will or choose, is an act drawn out of the power to will’.
His objection is yet more improper than the expression. The art of
dancing rather resembles the understanding than the will. That drawing
which the Schools intend, is clear of another nature from that which he
conceives. By _elicitation_, he understands a persuading or enticing
with flattering words, or sweet alluring insinuations, to choose this or
that. But that _elicitation_ which the Schools intend, is a deducing of
the power of the will into act; that drawing which they mention, is
merely from the appetibility of the object, or of the end. As a man
draws a child after him with the sight of a fair apple, or a shepherd
draws his sheep after him with the sight of a green bough: so the end
draws the will to it by a metaphorical motion. What he understands here
by an ability to dance, is more than I know, or any man else, until he
express himself in more proper terms; whether he understand the
locomotive faculty alone, or the art or acquired habit of dancing alone,
or both of these jointly. It may be said aptly without any absurdity,
that the act of dancing is drawn out (_elicitur_) of the locomotive
faculty helped by the acquired habit. He who is so scrupulous about the
received phrases of the Schools, should not have let so many improper
expressions have dropt from his pen; as in this very passage, he
confounds the _compelling_ of a voluntary action, with the _commanding_
of a voluntary action, and _willing_ with _electing_, which, he saith,
‘are all one’. Yet _to will_ properly respects the end, _to elect_ the
means.