The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-02-13
Free Will Versus No Will

Inc Will Is 10 ill luOlfluudl "IdC IAS 1OCOAAio-
tive is to train: it leads the way and it fur
nishes the power If there isn't sufficient pow
| er the train can't get anywhere. If the locomo-
tive doesn't stay on the track, the train will be
wrecked. 1t is just as essential that man have
will power and will education it is that
train have track to run on and steam to be
pulled by.
| The will might be compared to builder who
does the actual work of building The intellect
would be like the draughtsman who makes the
drawings and the blue prints.
| If one keeps this illustration in mind, he
easily understand two of the commonest mis-
takes about the human will.
Taine, the great French scholar, argues that
a man has no will According to him, our de-
cisions and emotions and thoughts are produced
by the brain cells just as bile is produced by the
liver cells.
Even great men may be very foolish! Taine
would have us believe that the brick and the NOR
tar and wood and stone could erect themselves
into building and that no builder to direct and
plan is necessary.
Another class of persons turn Taine's tele-
Iscope end to end and see the exact opposite. Ac-
cording to their notions, the will is everything.
I1hey believe that man lives in vacuum and
that he can do anything he decides to do. These
people are also very foolish They would have
us believe that builder could put up building
without the use of brick and mortar and stone
and timber
The trouble with both of these extremists is
that they have not studied the human mind with
the help of modern scientific methods. If they
did, they would see that the truth about the hu-
man will lies between these two extremes.
The Observation-Disclosures is merely what we
call those who make special scientific
study of the human mind-have shown us very
clearly that neither the so-called free will" the
CRY nor the so-called mo will theory is true.
The scientific teaching has been called the
theory of "Determinism' Determinism is the
doctrine that building is erected not by the
builder alone nor by the materials alone, but by
the cooperation of one with the other. In 9TH
er words, has to have things to work with
and he also has to be worker Results cannot
be had if either of these horses is left out'of the
team. We can overcome our surroundings but we
| ,annot do without surroundings. We work with
and not apart from the things about us.
The strong man is not the one who has
:aped from the influences of his environment, but
s who has lot of steam in his engine. A
man who can generate 100 pounds of steam will
be more successful in overcoming obstacles than
The man who can only generate 80 pounds. 1t is
absolutely necessary to cultivate will power if
one would be strong
But even a strong must have the right
Kind of materials to work with. Michelangelo
the who put up the big St. Peters
cathedral could not erect large fine building
if he did not have plenty of first class mater
lals. And so it is important that every man be
surrounded by the right kind of things and in
fluences.
Thus the people who teach us: "Be strong.
You the captain of your own SOUL" and the
other people who teach "Change your sur
roundings," are both right. The truth lies above
land includes both extremes.
If only our politicians would study the sci
ence of the human mind they would be saved
from committing many political blunders.
Many of them draw up their laws on the
assumption that nothing more is needed than to
surround people with the right kind of an envir-
onment. They overlook the fact that the human
will must also be strengthened
Another class of politicians says, away
with the talk of environment. strong man
doesn't need any help. He can overcome all OBJ
lstacles'
Wise politicians will say, Let us do all we can
to make conditions better and let us continue do
ing all we can to inspire and awaken and educate
the wills and ambitions of men,
DECIMAL POINT OMITTED.
Topeka Capital
The Kay See Star quotes Walt Mason saying he
1915 month his trade news
paper writing Our experience in the field
leads believe that printer left period out
and that the proofreader failed to catch the