vessel will break it in order
to escape. It puts forth effort at every part, but finally flings itself
upon the weakest. Thus do the inclinations of the soul extend over all the
goods that present themselves: they are antecedent acts of will; but the
consequent will, which is their result, is determined in the direction of
that which touches most closely.

326. This ascendancy of inclinations, however, does not prevent man from
being master in his own domain, provided that he knows how to make use of
his power. His dominion is that of reason: he has only to prepare himself
in good time to resist the passions, and he will be capable of checking the
vehemence of the most furious. Let us assume that Augustus, about to give
orders for putting to death Fabius Maximus, acts, as is his wont, upon the
advice a philosopher had given him, to recite the Greek alphabet before
doing anything in the first heat of his anger: this reflexion will be
capable of saving the life of Fabius and the glory of Augustus. But without
some fortunate reflexion, which one owes sometimes to a special divine
mercy, or without some skill acquired beforehand, like that of Augustus,
calculated to make us reflect fittingly as to time and place, passion will
prevail over reason. The driver is master over the horses if he controls
them as he should, and as he can; but there are occasions when he becomes
negligent, and then for a time he will have to let go the reins:

_Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas_.

327. One must admit that there is always within us enough power over [323]
our will, but we do not always bethink ourselves of employing it. That
shows, as I have observed more than once, that the power of the soul over
its inclinations is a control which can only be exercised in an _indirect_
manner, almost as Bellarmine would have had the Popes exercise rights over
the temporal power of kings. In truth, the external actions that do not
exceed our powers depend absolutely upon our will; but our volitions depend
upon our will only through certain artful twists which give us means of
suspending our resolutions, or of changing them. We are masters in our own
house, not as God is in the world, he having but to speak, but as a wise
prince is in his dominions or as a good father of a family is in his home.
M. Bayle sometimes takes the matter differently, as though we must have, in
order to boast of a free will, an absolute power over ourselves,