Pagina 294 de 734

By voluntary, I mean, as we stated before, whatsoever of things

in his own power a man does with knowledge, and the absence of

ignorance as to the person to whom, or the instrument with which,

or the result with which he does; as, for instance, whom he

strikes, what he strikes him with, and with what probable result;

and each of these points again, not accidentally nor by

compulsion; as supposing another man were to seize his hand and

strike a third person with it, here, of course, the owner of the

hand acts not voluntarily, because it did not rest with him to do

or leave undone: or again, it is conceivable that the person

struck may be his father, and he may know that it is a man, or

even one of the present company, whom he is striking, but not

know that it is his father. And let these same distinctions be

supposed to be carried into the case of the result and in fact

the whole of any given action.