When I touch a
button, great ships are loaded on the opposite side of the earth and
cross the intervening oceans to work the bidding of a person they have
never seen. Perhaps some day we may send our volition beyond the globe
and enter into communication with the inhabitants of Mars. It would
seem idle, then, to talk about the limitations of volition and a
restricted range of will. But in fact that will is restricted, and its
range is much narrower than the globe. For when we consider the
matter, with precision, it is not exactly I who have operated in
China. I operate only where I am. In touching the button my direct
agency ceases. It is true that connected with that button are wires
conducting to a wide variety of consequences. But about the details of
that conduction I need know nothing. The wire will work equally well
whether I understand or do not understand electricity. Its working is
not mine, but its own. The pressure of my finger ends my act, which is
then taken up and carried forward by automatic and mechanical
adjustments requiring neither supervision nor consciousness on my
part. We might then more accurately say that my direct volition is
circumscribed by my own body. My finger tips, my lips, my nodding head
are the points where I part with full control, though indefinitely
beyond these I can forecast changes which the automatic agencies, once
set astir, will induce.
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