Not only can we from that plane see thus fully
the result of every action, but we can also see where and in what way the
results of other actions apparently quite unconnected with it will
interfere with and modify it. In fact, it may be said that the results of
all causes at present in action are clearly visible--that the future, as
it would be if no entirely new causes should arise, lies open before our
gaze.
"New causes of course do arise, because man's will is free; but in the
case of all ordinary people the use which they make of their freedom may
be calculated beforehand with considerable accuracy. The average man has
so little real will that he is very much the creature of circumstances;
his action in previous lives places him amid certain surroundings, and
their influence upon him is so very much the most important factor in his
life-story that his future course may be predicted with almost
mathematical certainty. With the developed man the case is different; for
him also the main events of life are arranged by his past actions, but the
way in which he will allow them to affect him, the methods by which he
will deal with them and perhaps triumph over them--these are all his own,
and they cannot be foreseen even on the mental plane except as
probabilities.
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