With very slight straining of equivalents, Thomas might now be written thus:— By the term God, is meant a Prime Mover which supplies all energy to th… - Henry Brooks Adams

" "

With very slight straining of equivalents, Thomas might now be written thus:— By the term God, is meant a Prime Mover which supplies all energy to the universe, and acts directly on man as well as on all other creatures, moving him as a mechanical motor might do; but man, being specially provided with an organism more complex than the organisms of other creatures, enjoys an exceptional capacity for reflex action,— a power of reflexion,— which enables him within certain limits to choose between paths; and this singular capacity is called free choice or free-will. Of course, the reflexion is not choice, and though a man's mind reflected as perfectly as the facets of a lighthouse lantern, it would never reach a choice without an energy which impels it to act. [...] The scheme seems to differ little, and unwillingly, from a system of dynamics as modern as the dynamo.