It may be answered that throughout the foregoing chain of actions,
the freedom, what little there is of it, is apparent only, and that
even in the small freedoms, which are not so obviously controlled by
necessity, the necessity is still present as effectually as when the
man, though apparently free to walk to the gallows, is in reality
bound to do so. For in respect of the small details of his manner of
walking to the gallows, which compulsion does not so glaringly reach,
what is it that the man is free to do? He is free to do as he likes,
but he is not free to do as he does not like; and a man's likings are
determined by outside things and by antecedents, pre-natal and post-
natal, whose effect is so powerful that the individual who makes the
choice proves to be only the resultant of certain forces which have
been brought to bear upon him but which are not the man. So that it
seems there is no detail, no nook or corner of action, into which
necessity does not penetrate.
This seems logical, but it is as logical to follow instinct and
common sense as to follow logic, and both instinct and common sense
assure us that there is no nook or corner of action into which free-
will does not penetrate, unless it be those into which mind does not
enter at all, as when a man is struck by lightning or is overwhelmed
suddenly by an avalanche.
Besides, those who maintain that action is bound to follow choice,
while choice can only follow opinion as to advantage, neglect the
very considerable number of cases in which opinion as to advantage
does not exist--when, for instance, a man feels, as we all of us
sometimes do, that he is utterly incapable of forming any opinion
whatever as to his most advantageous course.
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