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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 120, page id 778263916:0136
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P
6. F6. Fis plain tHen, ThaE the Will iS nothinE BUE OnC POVer Or
Abilicy, and Freedom another Porer or Abilier: Sothat eo astE, Wrhether
ehe Will has Ercedom, isto aste, Whether one Porver has arother Pover,
one Abilier another Abilier; a Oueltion at trst Sighe t00 grosy absurd
tomatre a Vispute, or necd an Ansiver. For urtio is it chat lecs nOt, that
Povers belons only to Agents, aud are Attributes only of Substances, and
not of Povers themlelres: S0 chat this ay ot puttins the question, viz.
Whether the Will Be Frec, is in efect to ast, Whether the WVilI De a Sub.
Aance, an Agent, or at least to suppole it, since Frecdom ean proxeriy
be actributedro nothins else. IF Freedom can with ans proprieti et speccti
be applied to Porer, it may be actributed to the Pover, is in a ertan, 10
produce, or Forbear procueins Morion in parrs ot his Body, by choice or
preference; Wrhich is that which denominates him trec, and is Frecdom
it selP. But il ans one Mould aste, Whether Ercedom vere frec, he vould
bc suspected noc to understand well what he said; and hre vould be
thouslt to delerre Midas S Fars, Who nomine that Rich vas a denomi-
nation trom the pollession ot Riches, Mould demand Whether Riches
themlelres vere rich.
S. F7. Fowerer che name Faculer, Which Men have siven eothis
Porver callathe Will, andso calhed of it as actins, may by this appropri-
ated term, seem a little to palliate the absurdier, vet the Will in truth,
Signitus nochins bur a Porer, or Abilitr, to preferr or choose; and when
considered, as it is, barely as an Abilier to do lomethins, it will casily dil
cover the ablurdier in layins it is trec, ornot trec. For if it be reasonable
to suppose and talk ot Faculties, as distinet Beinss, that can act, (a5 we do,
Wtren ve Pay the Will orders, and the NiII is Frec,) tis tr chat ero Mould
makce a speakins Faculey, and a walteins racules, and a dancins Faculer,
by erhich those Actions are produced, Which are but sereral ModesoFMo-
tion; as vellas we do the Will and Oncerstandins to be Faculcies, by
Wrhich the Actions of Choolins and Perceirins are produced, Which are
but several Modes of Thintins; and we mas asproveriy CaY, that ris the
ingins Faculty lings, and the dancins Faculey dances, as that the Wis
chooses, or thatthe Onderstandins conccires; or, as is ulual, that the WilI
directs theOnderstanding, or the Inderstandins oboys, or obeys not the
WViII. It beins altogether as properand intellisible to lar, that the porver
oE Spealins directs the pover ot singinz, or the porer ot Singins obers
Or dilobers the porver os Speatins.
6. 18. This way oEtaltins, nevertheless, has prevailed, ancl, a5 l guels,
produced great contusion; For these beins all different Porvers in tho
Mind, or in theMtan, to do several Actions, heexertsthem as he thintis
fE; but theporver to do one Action, is not operated on by the porver ot
doins anocher Action. For the pover ol Thintins operates not on the
Porrer ot Choolins; nor che poirer ot Choolins on the porrer ol Thin-
Ting, no more thanthe pover of Dancins operates on the porver ol sino.
ins, Or thepoer oE sinsins on the porer ol Dancins, as ans one may
calily perceire, irho ill bur consider; and vet that is it which we lay.
erhen ire thus speati, thac the Will operates on tlie Vnderstandine, or the
Onderstandins on theWill.
S. F9. TOranE, that this or that actual ThouohE, may be the Occalion
OFVolition, or exercisins the pover a Man has ro choole; or the actual
choice ofche Mind, the cause oFactual chinkins on this or chat thins: AS
the actual singins oF such a Tune, may bethe occalion ot dancins such a
Dance, and the actual dancins ot luchi a Dance, che occation of linsins suctr
2FUnC: But in al chele, it is nOE One por er chat operales Om aMOther;
FOr