subsided the young men turned from the main road into a by path which led them off into the woods and soon brought them to the shores of the brook the brook was a torrent indeed it poured over the rocky and broad in its bed with great violence sometimes under the ice and sometimes over it great cakes of flat ice floated in the deeper parts and and in uncouth forms down the little at particular points where there were rocky on each side of the stream the ice and snow had themselves in and formed a sort of rude natural dam with great in fresh fragments from above and a perfect boiling and foaming below james and his cousin had not lost or forgotten the feelings of boyhood they pulled long poles out of a brush fence and amused themselves with clearing away these and watching the great masses of ice as they broke away from their and were borne m j m difficulties on either side st paul s difficulty down by the torrent of waters crowding and one another along the stream after a while they paused and stood each upon a rock with his pole resting upon the brink of the water said james you must admit that my views are more satisfactory than yours � i mean in the results they make every man entirely responsible for his own conduct he is his own master as it were and has his moral destiny in his own hands and god is freed from all responsibility of every kind for the sins which his creatures commit yes said i acknowledge that but then those views do in effect god he is no longer the monarch � the sovereign for a vast portion of the events which take place under his reign and altogether the most interesting and important portion � that is the moral actions of his creatures are placed beyond his control he must have all character and conduct under his control or else he must when he calls men into existence take the risk of their conduct while he is himself a mere on and yet if he � if all human conduct results necessarily from causes which he has put in operation we avoid making him morally responsible for it all i don t know said there s the great difficulty the son of man as it is written of him but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed that is a woe is against the man whoever he might be who should become the instrument to one of god s deliberate and recorded designs that is a hard knot said james after a pause yes but it does not trouble me at all replied how so because it seems st paul came across the very same and he did not try to answer it so i am content not to he old school and new school thinks that the will possesses very little real power says thou wilt say then why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will v� that is how can we be worthy of blame if all our actions are only the gradual development of god s designs and he does not attempt to explain it now as i come upon the same difficulty precisely and as it seems to me utterly as it appears to have seemed to him i infer that i have come in the same course and occupy the same position with him so that the difficulty is an actual confirmation of my views i make the same rock which an experienced old made before me and it has the same aspects and bearings and so as every body admits that he was on the right course i take it for granted that i am too so saying pitched his pole into the water and turned toward the woods james following his example and his steps they walked along a little time in light conversation examining the various objects of interest they met � now the remains of a fantastic snow drift now an old hollow tree and now a running along upon a log or gliding through the low with his like tail curled over his back at length returned again to the general subject of their discussion by saying it seems to me cousin james that you take altogether a wrong view of the power and province of the will in your system of philosophy the will is the not the commander her business is to convey orders and carry them into execution not to issue them originally who does issue them the and the permanent moral tendencies of the soul which constitute the character as distinguished from the conduct i think it can be shown very clearly that the will is altogether more of a servant than a master m don shows that the will can not control the train of thought no said james the will is free and it forms the conduct by its own spontaneous and this conduct viewed what we call the character yes that is your philosophy i know but now let us look at the power the will has over the other powers and faculties of the mind first on the thoughts look at that red running along with an in his cheek now see if you can look at him without thinking of him � that is fix your eye upon him and yet by your will prevent all thoughts of him from entering your mind no said james that is impossible but that proves nothing nobody that the will the trains of thought so entirely as to the idea of a thing when the visible object is full before us very well said walk along then a little before me and i will follow now i am out of sight he continued as james stepped on before him 