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we may Deliberate; not knowing it is in vain. And it is called
DELIBERATION; because it is a putting an end to the Liberty we had
of doing, or omitting, according to our own Appetite, or Aversion.
This alternate succession of Appetites, Aversions, Hopes and Feares
is no less in other living Creatures than in Man; and therefore
Beasts also Deliberate.
Every Deliberation is then sayd to End when that whereof they
Deliberate, is either done, or thought impossible; because till then
wee retain the liberty of doing, or omitting, according to our
Appetite, or Aversion.
The Will
In Deliberation, the last Appetite, or Aversion, immediately
adhaering to the action, or to the omission thereof, is that
wee call the WILL; the Act, (not the faculty,) of Willing.
And Beasts that have Deliberation must necessarily also have Will.
The Definition of the Will, given commonly by the Schooles,
that it is a Rationall Appetite, is not good. For if it were,
then could there be no Voluntary Act against Reason. For a Voluntary Act
is that, which proceedeth from the Will, and no other. But if in stead
of a Rationall Appetite, we shall say an Appetite resulting from
a precedent Deliberation, then the Definition is the same that I
have given here. Will, therefore, Is The Last Appetite In Deliberating.
And though we say in common Discourse, a man had a Will once to
do a thing, that neverthelesse he forbore to do; yet that is
properly but an Inclination, which makes no Action Voluntary;
because the action depends not of it, but of the last Inclination,
or Appetite. For if the intervenient Appetites make any action Voluntary,
then by the same reason all intervenient Aversions should make
the same action Involuntary; and so one and the same action should be
both Voluntary & Involuntary.
By this it is manifest, that not onely actions that have their
beginning from Covetousness, Ambition, Lust, or other Appetites
to the thing propounded; but also those that have their beginning
from Aversion, or Feare of those consequences that follow the omission,
are Voluntary Actions.
Formes Of Speech, In Passion
The formes of Speech by which the Passions are expressed,
are partly the same, and partly different from those, by which we
express our Thoughts. And first generally all Passions may be
expressed Indicatively; as, I Love, I Feare, I Joy, I Deliberate,
I Will, I Command: but some of them have particular expressions
by themselves, which nevertheless are not affirmations, unless it be
when they serve to make other inferences, besides that of the Passion
they proceed from. Deliberation is expressed Subjunctively;
which is a speech proper to signifie suppositions, with their
consequences; as, If This Be Done, Then This Will Follow;
and differs not from the language of Reasoning, save that
Reasoning is in generall words, but Deliberation for the most part
is of Particulars. The language of Desire, and Aversion,
is Imperative; as, Do This, Forbear That; which when the party
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