What is Man? and Other Essays. Mark Twain

had no Free Will: his temperament, his training, and the daily influences which had molded him and made him what he was, COMPELLED him to rescue the old woman and thus save HIMSELF – save himself from spiritual pain, from unendurable wretchedness. He did not make the choice, it was made FOR him by forces which he could not control. Free Will has always existed in WORDS, but it stops there, I think – stops short of FACT. I would not use those words – Free Will – but others.

      Y.M. What others?

      O.M. Free Choice.

      Y.M. What is the difference?

      O.M. The one implies untrammeled power to ACT as you please, the other implies nothing beyond a mere MENTAL PROCESS: the critical ability to determine which of two things is nearest right and just.

      Y.M. Make the difference clear, please.

      O.M. The mind can freely SELECT, CHOOSE, POINT OUT the right and just one – its function stops there. It can go no further in the matter. It has no authority to say that the right one shall be acted upon and the wrong one discarded. That authority is in other hands.

      Y.M. The man's?

      O.M. In the machine which stands for him. In his born disposition and the character which has been built around it by training and environment.

      Y.M. It will act upon the right one of the two?

      O.M. It will do as it pleases in the matter. George Washington's machine would act upon the right one; Pizarro would act upon the wrong one.

      Y.M. Then as I understand it a bad man's mental machinery calmly and judicially points out which of two things is right and just—

      O.M. Yes, and his MORAL machinery will freely act upon the other or the other, according to its make, and be quite indifferent to the MIND'S feeling concerning the matter – that is, WOULD be, if the mind had any feelings; which it hasn't. It is merely a thermometer: it registers the heat and the cold, and cares not a farthing about either.

      Y.M. Then we must not claim that if a man KNOWS which of two things is right he is absolutely BOUND to do that thing?

      O.M. His temperament and training will decide what he shall do, and he will do it; he cannot help himself, he has no authority over the mater. Wasn't it right for David to go out and slay Goliath?

      Y.M. Yes.

      O.M. Then it would have been equally RIGHT for any one else to do it?

      Y.M. Certainly.

      O.M. Then it would have been RIGHT for a born coward to attempt it?

      Y.M. It would – yes.

      O.M. You know that no born coward ever would have attempted it, don't you?

      Y.M. Yes.

      O.M. You know that a born coward's make and temperament would be an absolute and insurmountable bar to his ever essaying such a thing, don't you?

      Y.M. Yes, I know it.

      O.M. He clearly perceives that it would be RIGHT to try it?

      Y.M. Yes.

      O.M. His mind has Free Choice in determining that it would be RIGHT to try it?

      Y.M. Yes.

      O.M. Then if by reason of his inborn cowardice he simply can NOT essay it, what becomes of his Free Will? Where is his Free Will? Why claim that he has Free Will when the plain facts show that he hasn't? Why content that because he and David SEE the right alike, both must ACT alike? Why impose the same laws upon goat and lion?

      Y.M. There is really no such thing as Free Will?

      O.M. It is what I think. There is WILL. But it has nothing to do with INTELLECTUAL PERCEPTIONS OF RIGHT AND WRONG, and is not under their command. David's temperament and training had Will, and it was a compulsory force; David had to obey its decrees, he had no choice. The coward's temperament and training possess Will, and IT is compulsory; it commands him to avoid danger, and he obeys, he has no choice. But neither the Davids nor the cowards possess Free Will – will that may do the right or do the wrong, as their MENTAL verdict shall decide.

      Y.M. There is one thing which bothers me: I can't tell where you draw the line between MATERIAL covetousness and SPIRITUAL covetousness.

      O.M. I don't draw any.

      Y.M. How do you mean?

      O.M. There is no such thing as MATERIAL covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual.

      Y.M. ALL longings, desires, ambitions SPIRITUAL, never material?

      O.M. Yes. The Master in you requires that in ALL cases you shall content his SPIRIT – that alone. He never requires anything else, he never interests himself in any other matter.

      Y.M. Ah, come! When he covets somebody's money – isn't that rather distinctly material and gross?

      O.M. No. The money is merely a symbol – it represents in visible and concrete form a SPIRITUAL DESIRE. Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for ITSELF, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

      Y.M. Please particularize.

      O.M. Very well. Maybe the thing longed for is a new hat. You get it and your vanity is pleased, your spirit contented. Suppose your friends deride the hat, make fun of it: at once it loses its value; you are ashamed of it, you put it out of your sight, you never want to see it again.

      Y.M. I think I see. Go on.

      O.M. It is the same hat, isn't it? It is in no way altered. But it wasn't the HAT you wanted, but only what it stood for – a something to please and content your SPIRIT. When it failed of that, the whole of its value was gone. There are no MATERIAL values; there are only spiritual ones. You will hunt in vain for a material value that is ACTUAL, REAL – there is no such thing. The only value it possesses, for even a moment, is the spiritual value back of it: remove that end and it is at once worthless – like the hat.

      Y.M. Can you extend that to money?

      O.M. Yes. It is merely a symbol, it has no MATERIAL value; you think you desire it for its own sake, but it is not so. You desire it for the spiritual content it will bring; if it fail of that, you discover that its value is gone. There is that pathetic tale of the man who labored like a slave, unresting, unsatisfied, until he had accumulated a fortune, and was happy over it, jubilant about it; then in a single week a pestilence swept away all whom he held dear and left him desolate. His money's value was gone. He realized that his joy in it came not from the money itself, but from the spiritual contentment he got out of his family's enjoyment of the pleasures and delights it lavished upon them. Money has no MATERIAL value; if you remove its spiritual value nothing is left but dross. It is so with all things, little or big, majestic or trivial – there are no exceptions. Crowns, scepters, pennies, paste jewels, village notoriety, world-wide fame – they are all the same, they have no MATERIAL value: while they content the SPIRIT they are precious, when this fails they are worthless.

      Y.M. You keep me confused and perplexed all the time by your elusive terminology. Sometimes you divide a man up into two or three separate personalities, each with authorities, jurisdictions, and responsibilities of its own, and when he is in that condition I can't grasp it. Now when I speak of a man, he is THE WHOLE THING IN ONE, and easy to hold and contemplate.

      O.M. That is pleasant and convenient, if true. When you speak of "my body" who is the "my"?

      Y.M. It is the "me."

      O.M. The body is a property then, and the Me owns it. Who is the Me?

      Y.M. The Me is THE WHOLE THING; it is a common property; an undivided ownership, vested in the whole entity.