In the religious world, too, it is the case that some who are very firm and decided on all points of religious observances and in the cultivation of devotional emotions, are guilty of very mean actions, such as some worldly men of honor would not practice at the sacrifice of a right hand.
On Causes of Volition.
It becomes, then, a most interesting subject of inquiry as to the causes which decide these diversities of moral purposes, and also the causes which operate to give them more or less control over other principles.
But, preliminary to this, it is necessary to secure some discriminating accuracy in regard to the signification of the word cause in its various uses.
This term, in its widest sense, signifies "that without which a change will not take place, and with which it will take place." This is the leading idea which is included in every use of the word.
But there is a foundation for three classes of causes which may be denominated producing causes, occasional causes, and deciding causes.
A producing cause is that which produces a change by the constitution of nature, so that in the given circumstances there is no power to do otherwise.
Occasional causes are those circumstances which are indispensable to the action of producing causes.
Thus, when fire is applied to your powder, the fire is the producing cause of the explosion, while the act of contact between the fire and powder is the occasional cause.
In regard to the action of mind in volition, the mind itself is the producing cause, while excited desires and objects to excite those desires are the occasional causes. Or, in other words, mind is the producing cause of its own volitions, and motives are the occasional causes.