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perplexities over it, their escape by denials of it, are no more proofs against it, than the like treatment of the mind's action in a dozen other directions. The spontaneous, ever recurring action of the mind is the proof we have of liberty, and the only proof we have for anything our faculties offer us. We see and see again, till we believe that we see. We think and think again, till we accept our thought.

Lesson 106 - 9. Proof of liberty -- Spontaneity - p.417

9. Liberty, as a primary power, calls for a broader basis in our constitution than we have thus far assigned it, or than is usually seen to belong to it. If one act only, that of choice, is spontaneous, then this act can accomplish nothing, enclosed as a single term in the on-going processes of the mind. A volition must have at its disposal spontaneous powers to execute its purposes, powers that can be rescued from the current of previous causes, and be opened up to a new impulse. If the thoughts and feelings are ever moving forward under sufficient and independent forces or causes, then neither can the antecedent conditions of volition be secured, nor the subsequent ones. Antecedently volition would fail, because each state of thought and feeling being fixed by forces alien to the will, there would be no opportunity for independent inquiry on any topic; the will would be found in the midst of intellectual and emotional conditions alien to every other than the established drift of thought. The volition would fail subsequently, because an act of choice is nothing unless previous tendencies can be checked by it and new ones established; unless spontaneous powers can be brought forward for its execution. One may stand in a mill, its busy wheels revolving everywhere about him, and choose this or that result; the choice does not avail unless he can put his hand on the machinery and modify its action. So far as this is complete within itself, and driven by its own forces, it goes forward heedless of volitions. If one is to oversee men, his oversight