Download (PDF, 23.58MB) - Plurality Press

324 THE WILL IN NATURE.
will is even the auxiliary of the future of all the other
verbs, thus expressing the notion, that there lies a will at
the bottom of every action. In English moreover, the en
deavours of all inanimate and unconscious things, are ex
pressly designated by the word want, which denotes every
sort of human desire or endeavour :
"
the water wants to
get out,"
"
too we have
the steam wants to find an issue." In Italian
"
"
vuol piovere ;
"
quest 1
orologio non vuol
andare" The conception of willing is besides so deeply
rooted in this last language, that it seems to indicate every
thing that is requisite or necessary:
trappeso ;
"
"
ci vuol pazienza."
"
ci vuol un con-
A very striking instance of this is to be found even in
Chinese a language which differs fundamentally from all
those belonging to the Sanskrit family it is in the commen
accurately rendered by Peter Kegis as
tary to the Y-King, 1
"
follows : Tang, sen materia coelestis, vult rursus ingredi, vel
(ut verbis doctoris Tsching-tse utar) vult rursus esse in supe-
riore loco ; scilicet illius naturce ratio ita fert, seu innata lex.
The following passage from Liebig has decidedly much
more than a linguistic signification, for it expresses an inti
mate feeling and comprehension of the way in which a
chemical process takes place.
"
Aldehyd arises, which with
the same avidity as sulphurous acid, combines directly with
oxygen to form, acetic acid." And again: 3
"Aldehyd,
which absorbs oxygen from the air with great avidity"
As Liebig uses this expression twice in speaking of the
same phenomenon, it can hardly be by chance, but rather
because it was the only adequate expression for the thing. 4
1
Y-King," ed. J. Mohl, TO!, i. p. 341.
2
"
Liebig, Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agrikultur," p. 394.
3 "
Ibid. Die Chemie in Anwendung auf Physiologie.
* French chemists likewise say :
"
sont pas tous tgalement abides d . . . .
oxygene" La
"
II est Evident que Us mtaux ne
difficult^ de la
reduction devait correspond ntcessairement a une avidit<S fort grande