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[SEIZING A QUESTION BY THE WRONG END.]

V. What is called Moral Ability and Inability is another artificial perplexity in regard to the will, and might also be the text for a sermon on prevailing errors.  More especially, it exemplifies what may be termed seizing a question by the wrong end.

The votary, we shall say, of alcoholic liquor is found fault with, and makes the excuse, he cannot help it—­he cannot resist the temptation.  So far, the language may pass.  But what shall we say to the not uncommon reply,—­You could help it if you would.  Surely there is some mystification here; it is not one of those plain statements that we desire in practical affairs.  Whether we are dealing with matter or with mind, we ought to point out some clear and practicable method of attaining an end in view.  To get a good crop, we till and enrich the soil; to make a youth knowing in mathematics, we send him to a good master, and stimulate his attention by combined reward and punishment.  There are also intelligible courses of reforming the vicious:  withdraw them from temptation till their habits are remodelled; entice them to other courses, by presenting objects of superior attraction; or, at lowest, keep the fact of punishment before their eyes.  By these methods many are kept from vices, and not a few reclaimed after having fallen.  But to say, “You can be virtuous if you will,” is either unmeaning, or it disguises a real meaning.  If it have any force at all—­and it would not be used unless, some efficacy had been found attaching to it,—­the force must be in the indirect circumstances or accompaniments.  What, then, is the meaning that is so unhappily expressed?  In the first place, it is a vehicle for conveying the strong wish and determination of the speaker; it is a clumsy substitute for—­“I do wish you would amend your conduct”; an expression containing a real efficacy, greater or less according to the estimate formed of the speaker by the person spoken to.  In the next place, it presents to the mind of the delinquent the ideal of improvement, which might also be done in unexceptionable phrase; as one might say—­“Reflect upon your own state, and compare yourself with the correct and virtuous liver”.  Then, there is a touch of the stoical dignity and pride of will.  Lastly, there may be a hint or suggestion to the mind of good and evil consequences, which is the most powerful motive of all.  In giving rise to these various considerations, even the objectionable expression may have a genuine efficacy; but that does not justify the form itself, which by no interpretation can be construed into sense or intelligibility.

[MEANING OF MORAL INABILITY.]