The Human Will Author:Thomas Hughes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ments of the mind, act more like dependent subjects ; whilst the will acts more like a superior sovereign, as if it knew of neither condition nor failure. CHA... more »PTER IV. THE PLACS AND CLASS OF THE WILL IN THE HUMAN MIND. Is the will a feeling or an intellectual act? or must it be classed with the emotional department or the intel- . lectual side of the mind ? is a question about which philosophers even differ in their opinion and answer. Or it' is possible that the will cannot be classified absolutely with the emotional side, nor yet with the intellectual department of the mind, but that it constitutes a class of its own, .and stands between these, and serves and carries out the common mandates of both. These three different views have their disciples and advocates, and all think that they have plausible ground to stand upon and defend themselves. In this, as in other matters of diversity in opinion, we must examine and weigh the value of the arguments, and choose for ourselves. If the will is a pure intellectual power, it is hard to avoid the conclusion of Dr Samuel Clarke, and the same class of thinkers, that the will is the same as the understanding. On the other hand, if it is only a simple emotional element in human nature, it loses its dignity, its primary power, and its sovereign authority, which would not only be in diametrical opposition to human consciousness, but also to general belief, and unceasinglyadverse to visible facts. To make the will one with the understanding is to destroy its particular functions, and reduce it to a mere name; to make it an emotional power reduces its sovereign functions and importance. Our consciousness informs us that the will is a power of the human mind, cannot be made to mean the same as any other act or power, nor can its plac...« less