Our registry of results must
be infinite before we could arrive at a full forecast of future
combinations; the wonder is that there is as much certainty concerning
human action as there is; and assuredly the older we grow the more
certain we feel as to what such and such a kind of person will do in
given circumstances; but this could never be the case unless human
conduct were under the influence of laws, with the working of which we
become more and more familiar through experience.
"If the above is sound, it follows that the regularity with which
machinery acts is no proof of the absence of vitality, or at least of
germs which may be developed into a new phase of life. At first sight it
would indeed appear that a vapour-engine cannot help going when set upon
a line of rails with the steam up and the machinery in full play; whereas
the man whose business it is to drive it can help doing so at any moment
that he pleases; so that the first has no spontaneity, and is not
possessed of any sort of free will, while the second has and is.
"This is true up to a certain point; the driver can stop the engine at
any moment that he pleases, but he can only please to do so at certain
points which have been fixed for him by others, or in the case of
unexpected obstructions which force him to please to do so.
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