results have
ensued upon a choice thus made entirely without motive.

(_b_) Motives of equal strength act differently on different temperaments.
The same motive, when it stands alone, with no opposing motive, has not
the same effect on different minds. There is in the will of every human
being a certain reluctance to action--in some greater, in others
less--corresponding to the _vis inertiae_ in inanimate substances; and as
the impulse which will move a wooden ball may not suffice to move a leaden
ball, so the motive which will start into action a quick and sensitive
temperament, may produce no effect on a person of more sluggish nature.
Thus, among men utterly destitute of honesty, some are tempted by the most
paltry opportunities for theft or fraud; others, not one whit more
scrupulous, have their cupidity aroused only by the prospect of some
substantial gain. So, too, some sincerely benevolent persons are moved to
charitable actions by the slightest needs and sufferings; others, equally
kind and generous, have their sympathies excited only on grave occasions
and by imperative claims. Motives, then, have not a determinate and
calculable strength, but a power which varies with the previous character
of the person to whom they are addressed. Moreover, the greater or less
susceptibility to motives from without is not a difference produced by
education or surroundings; for it may be traced in children from the
earliest development of character. Nor can it be hereditary; for it may be
found among children of the same parents, and not infrequently between
twins nurtured under precisely the same care, instruction, and discipline.

(_c_) External motives are not the causes of action, but merely its
occasions or opportunities. The cause of the action already exists in the
character of the agent, before the motive presents itself. A purse of gold
that may be stolen without detection is an irresistible motive to a thief,
or to a person who, though not previously a thief, is covetous and
unprincipled; but the same purse might lie in the way of an honest man
every day for a month, and it would not make him a thief. If I recognize
the presence of a motive, I must perform some action, whether exterior or
internal; but whether that action will be in accordance with the motive,
or in the opposite direction, is determined by my previous character and
habits of action.

(_d_) The objection which we are considering assumes, without suff