PDF - Wallace Online

LIMITS OF NATURAL SELECTION IN MAN 211All Force is probably Will-Farce,If we are satisfied that force or forces are all that existin the material universe, we are next led to inquirewhat is force ? We are acquainted with two radicallydistinct or apparently distinct kinds of force the firstconsists of the primary forces of nature, such as gravitation,cohesion, repulsion, heat, electricity, etc. ;the second isour own will -force.Many persons will at once deny thatthe latter exists. It will be said that it is a mere transformationof the primary forces before alluded to ;that thecorrelation of forces includes those of animal life, and thatwill itself is but the result of molecular change in the brain.I think, however, that it can be shown that this latter assertionhas neither been proved, nor even been proved to bepossible and that in ; making it, a great leap in the dark hasbeen taken from the known to the unknown. Itmay be atonce admitted that the muscular force of animals and men ismerely the transformed energy derived from the primaryforces of nature. So much has been, if not rigidly proved,yet rendered highly probable, and it is in perfect accordancewith all our knowledge of natural forces and natural laws.But it cannot be contended that the physiological balancesheethas ever been so accurately struck, that we are entitledto say, not one-thousandth part of a grain more of force hasbeen exerted by any organised body, or in any part of it, thanhas been derived from the known primary forces of thematerial world. If that were so, it would absolutely negativethe existence of will ;for if will is anything, it is a power thatdirects the action of the forces stored up in the body, and it isnot conceivable that this direction can take place, without theexercise of some force in some part of the organism. Howeverdelicately a machine may be constructed, with the mostexquisitely contrived detents to release a weight or spring bythe exertion of the smallest possible amount of force, someexternal force will always be required ; so, in the animalmachine, however minute may be the changes required inthe cells or fibres of the brain, to set in motion the nervecurrents which loosen or excite the pent-up forces of certainmuscles, some force must be required to effect those changes.