But more is needed. A person fashioned in the way described would be
aware of himself, aware of his mental changes, perhaps aware of an
objective order of things producing these changes, and still might
have no real share himself in what was going on. We can at least
imagine a being merely contemplative. He sits as a spectator at his
own drama. Trains of associated ideas pass before his interested gaze;
a multitude of transactions occur in his contemplated surroundings;
but he is powerless to intervene. He passively beholds, and does
nothing. If such a state of things can be imagined, and if something
like it occasionally occurs in our experience, it does not represent
our normal condition. Our life is no mere affair of vision. Self-
consciousness counts as a factor. Through it changes arise both
without and within. I accordingly entitle this fourth chapter Self-
direction. In it I propose to consider how our life goes forth in
action; for in fact wherever self-consciousness appears, there is
developed also a centre of activity, and an activity of an altogether
peculiar kind.

It is well known that in interpreting these facts of action the
judgment of ethical writers is divided. Libertarians and determinists
are here at issue. Into their controversy I do not desire to enter. I
mean to attempt a brief summary of those facts relating to human
action which are tolerably well agreed upon by writers of both
schools. In these there are intricacies enough. To raise the hand, to
wave it in the air, to lay it on the table again, would ordinarily be
reckoned simple matters. Yet operations so simple as these I shall
show pass through half a dozen steps, though they are ordinarily
performed so swiftly that we do not notice their several parts. In
life much is knitted together which cannot be understood without