7. Power of Volition: Intelligence, as embodied in man, is also conscious of the power, within certain limitations, to will, and to perform what he wills to do: To rise up, to sit down; to raise his arm, to let it fall; to walk, to run, to stand; to go to Paris, to Berlin, or to Egypt; to write a book, to build a house, to found a hospital; to control largely his actions, physical and moral; he can be sober or drunken; chaste, or a libertine; benevolent or selfish; honest or a rogue. Having deliberated upon this and that and having formed a judgment that one thing is better than another, or that one condition is better than another, he has power to choose between them and can determine to give his aid to this and withhold it from that. So that volition, within certain limitations at least, seems also to be a quality of Intelligence.[A] It is of course possible to conceive of Intelligence and its necessarily attendant consciousness, existing without volition; but Intelligence so conceived is shorn of its glory, since under such conditions it can make no use whatsoever of its powers. Its very thinking would be chaotic; its consciousness distressing. If active at all its actions would be without purpose and as chaotic as its thinking would be, unless it could be thought of as both thinking and acting as directed by an intelligent, purposeful will external to itself: which would still leave the Intelligence a mere automaton, without dignity or moral quality, or even intellectual value.[B] I therefore conclude that while it is possible to conceive of Intelligence with its necessarily attendant consciousness as without volition, still, so far as we are acquainted with Intelligence, as manifested through men, volition—sometimes named soul-freedom or free-agency is a quality that within certain limitations, attends upon Intelligences and may be an inherent quality of Intelligence, a necessary attribute of its very essence, as much so as is consciousness itself.
[Footnote A: Seventy's Second Year Book, Lesson I and IV.]
[Footnote B:
"Freedom and reason make us men,
Take these away, what are we then?
Mere animals, and just as well
The beasts may think of heaven or hell."
—"Latter-day Saints' Hymn Book," p. 263.]
8. Recapitulation: We have found, then,
1. That Intelligences are eternal—self-existing intelligent entities;
2. That they are called Intelligences because intelligence is their chief characteristic;
3. That being intelligent consciousness is in them a necessary quality;
4. That they are both self-conscious, and conscious of an external universe not self;
5. That Intelligences have the power to generalize—to rise from the contemplation of the particular to the general, from the individual to universal;