are labouring the obvious and omitting the es-
sential. No one questions (it will be said) that
impulses may be controlled, but they are con-
trolled not by reason, but by other impulses that
happen to conflict with them. In the last analysis
all that "reflection," or anything that we can
call reasoning, does is to trace out consequences
which show the bearing of one impulse on an-
other. It thus multiplies points of contact, and
therefore of possible conflict. But the conflict
once joined, the victory is to the strong. The
most forceful impulse prevails, and the force of
an impulse is something which we may feel, but
which we do not alter by reasoning about it. To
test this account we must enquire further into the
meaning of "impulse," the function of feeling,
and the nature of control.

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