ABSTRACT
Primal Will, as I understand it, is not coextensive with the entire automatism of nature. Automatism and Will are indeed akin, and the first always subtends and envelops the second. Will, however, though it does not imply intelligence or premeditation, does imply eagerness to act. For this reason I should not attribute Will to plants, in spite of the precise and persistent order of their growth. Seeds are not impatient; each has its promise within, but none possess the active organs requisite to pursue the realisation of that promise. All wait for the timely assistance of sun and rain, or even of roving insects, to bring them the means of growth and of reproduction. It is animals, with their prehensile and locomotive organs, that are first able to rummage for food and run after mates with a pertinacity as fateful as it is voluntary. A violent sense of urgency apparently fills them during the pursuit, but not for any previous idea of the object or the result. The law of nature at bottom would seem to be that the object should disappear when attained, devoured or forgotten, and that the avid chase should recur for ever, only to keep the ball rolling.
