Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas.

327.  One must admit that there is always within us enough power over [323] our will, but we do not always bethink ourselves of employing it.  That shows, as I have observed more than once, that the power of the soul over its inclinations is a control which can only be exercised in an indirect manner, almost as Bellarmine would have had the Popes exercise rights over the temporal power of kings.  In truth, the external actions that do not exceed our powers depend absolutely upon our will; but our volitions depend upon our will only through certain artful twists which give us means of suspending our resolutions, or of changing them.  We are masters in our own house, not as God is in the world, he having but to speak, but as a wise prince is in his dominions or as a good father of a family is in his home.  M. Bayle sometimes takes the matter differently, as though we must have, in order to boast of a free will, an absolute power over ourselves, independent of reasons and of means.  But even God has not such a power, and must not have in this sense, in relation to his will:  he cannot change his nature, nor act otherwise than according to method; and how could man transform himself all of a sudden?  I have already said God’s dominion, the dominion of wisdom, is that of reason.  It is only God, however, who always wills what is most to be desired, and consequently he has no need of the power to change his will. 328.  If the soul is mistress in its own house (says M. Bayle, p. 753) it has only to will, and straightway that vexation and pain which is attendant upon victory over the passions will vanish away.  For this effect it would suffice, in his opinion, to give oneself indifference to the objects of the passions (p. 758).  Why, then, do men not give themselves this indifference (he says), if they are masters in their own house?  But this objection is exactly as if I were to ask why a father of a family does not give himself gold when he has need thereof?  He can acquire some, but through skill, and not, as in the age of the fairies, or of King Midas, through a mere command of the will or by his touch.  It would not suffice to be master in one’s own house; one must be master of all things in order to give oneself all that one wishes; for one does not find everything in one’s own house.  Working thus upon oneself, one must do as in working upon something else; one must have knowledge of the constitution and the qualities of one’s object, and adapt one’s operations thereto.  It is therefore not in a moment and by a mere act of the will that one corrects oneself, and that one acquires a better will.

[324] 329.  Nevertheless it is well to observe that the vexations and pains attendant upon victory over the passions in some people turn into pleasure, through the great satisfaction they find in the lively sense of the force of their mind, and of the divine grace.  Ascetics and true mystics can speak of this from experience; and even a true philosopher can say something thereof.  One can attain to that happy state, and it is one of the principal means the soul can use to strengthen its dominion.