A

PHILOSOPHICAL

AND

PRACTICAL TREATISE

ON THE

WILL.

BY THOMAS C. UPHAM,

PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN

BOWDOIN COLLEGE.

!

PORTLAND,

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM HYDE,

FOR Z. HYDE.

Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1834, by THOMAS C. UPHAM, A. M.

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine.

JOSEPH GRIFFIN, PRINTER,

BRUNSWICK, ME.

PREFACE.

In offering to the public the following Treatise on the Will, I am obliged to presume, in no small degree, on its forbearance and candour. It is a subject, which, in some of its applications, has been so long connected with Theological controversies, that it is almost impossible to write upon it, without exciting the suspicion, that the discussion will assume a party character. I hope the reader will do me the justice in the outset to believe, that my object is not a party one, and that the ascertainment of truth is my only aim. If he will take the trouble carefully to read the Treatise through, as I hope he will before pronouncing an opinion upon it, I anticipate the pleasure of standing fair in his estimation, as a candid inquirer after the truth, whether I have been successful in my efforts

or not.

I

presume the reader, and the public generally, will agree with me in the admission, that the subject of the Will is one

great importance, both theoretically and practically. And yet there can be no hesitation in saying, that it has never received that attention from mental philosophers, which is due to In those various Schools of philosophy, which from time to time sprung up among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it

it.