The brute's determination is the response of the brute soul to
the brute environment. He always yields to the most energetic
sensibility. Every lad who has ever taken the slops to the
hogs has in mind a striking illustration of this fact. On the
appearance of the swill pail they all rush for it. They can not
do otherwise. They can only be kept back while the swill is
being emptied into the trough by exciting some sensibility
more energetic than appetite. The more hungry they are the
greater the energy which must be put into the counter irritant.
The common plan is to thump the pig over the nose with a
stick. He stands back. He can not do otherwise, now, than
stand back. He stands back and squeals. He can not do other-
wise than squeal. Withdraw the stick, and once more he rushes
to the trough. He can not do otherwise. He is very determined,



44 STUDIES IN MORAL SCIENCE

but not self-determined, and it is not in his capacity to become
so. Now it is a short cut, and hke very much scientific infer-
ence, to argue from the pig to the man.
2. Much of the hfe of many men fails to reveal to us any
trace of the exercise of self-determination. Many men do live
very much as the brute lives. Excite one set of sensibilities
and you have one type of a man, excite another set of sensibili-
ties and you have an entirely different one. The fickleness of
crowds under the spell of orators and actors who know how
to play with human passions is well known.
