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172 THE FOURFOLD BOOT. [CHAP. VII.
the intellect, when it obliges it to repeat representations
that have once been present to it, and in general to turn
its attention in this or that direction and evoke at plea
sure any particular series of thoughts. And even in this,
the will is determined by the law of motives, in accordance
with which it also secretly rules what is called the associa
tion of ideas, to which I have devoted a separate chapter
(the 14th) in the second volume of my chief work. This
association of ideas is itself nothing but the application of
the Principle of Sufficient Reason in its four forms to the
subjective train of thought ; that is, to the presence of re
presentations in our consciousness. But it is the will of
the individual that sets the whole mechanism in motion,
by urging the intellect, in accordance with the interest, i.e.,
the individual aims, of the person, to recall, together with
its present representations, those which either logically or
analogically, or by proximity in Time or Space, are nearly
related to them. The will s activity in this, however, is so
immediate, that in most cases we have no clear conscious
ness of it and so ;
rapid, that we are at times even uncon
scious of the occasion which has thus called forth a repre
sentation. In such cases, it appears as if something had
come into our consciousness quite independently of all con
nection with anything else ; that this, however, is impos
sible, is precisely the Root of the Principle of Sufficient
Reason, which has been fully explained in the above-men
1
tioned chapter of my chief work. Every picture which
suddenly presents itself to our imagination, every judg
ment even that does not follow its previously present
reason, must be called forth by an act of volition having a
motive ; although that motive may often escape our percep
tion owing to its insignificance, and although
such acts of
volition are often in like manner unperceived, because they
1 See
" Die Welt, a. W. u. V." vol. ii. ch. XIY.