power of the man thus to order the beginning or forbearance, the continuance or ending of any action, is called the will, and the actual exercise thereof willing.
There are two questions usually put about this matter—first, Whether we are at liberty to will or not to will? secondly, Whether we are at liberty to will one or the other of two or more objects?
1. As to the first, whether we are at liberty to will or not to will, it is manifest we have not that liberty. For let an action in a man’s power be proposed to him as presently to be done, as for example, to walk—the will to walk or not to walk exists immediately. And when an action in a man’s power is proposed to him to be done to-morrow, as to walk to-morrow, he is no less obliged to have some immediate will. He must either have a will to defer willing about the matter proposed, or he must will immediately in relation to the thing proposed, and one or the other of those wills must exist immediately, no less than the will to walk or not to walk in the former case. Wherefore, in every proposal of something to be done which is in a man’s power to do, he cannot but have some immediate will.
Hence appears the mistake of those who[1] think men at liberty to will, or not to will, because, say they, they can suspend willing, in relation to actions to be done to-morrow; wherein they plainly confound themselves with words. For when it is said man is necessarily determined to will, it is not thereby understood that he is determined to will or choose one out of two objects immediately in every case proposed to him (or to choose at all in some cases—as whether he will travel into France or Holland), but that on every proposal he must necessarily have some will. And he is not less determined to will, because he does often suspend willing or choosing in certain cases; for suspending to will is itself, an act of willing; it is willing to defer willing about the matter proposed. In fine, though
- ↑ Locke of the Hum. Und., l. 2, c. 21.
