? ? ? ? 'Bosh and nonsense!' he exclaimed impatiently. 'It is the desire that decides. Here is a man who wants to, say, get drunk. Also, he doesn't want to get drunk. What does he do? How does he do it? He is a puppet. He is the creature of his desires, and of the two desires he obeys the stronger one, that is all. His soul hasn't anything to do with it. How can he be tempted to get drunk and refuse to get drunk? If the desire to remain sober prevails, it is because it was the stronger desire. Temptation plays no part, unless-' he paused while grasping the new thought which had come into his mind- 'unless he is tempted to remain sober.
? ? ? ? 'Ha! ha!' he laughed. 'What do you think of that, Mr. Van Weyden?'
? ? ? ? 'That both of you are hair-splitting,' I said. 'The man's soul is his desires. Or, if you will, the sum of his desires is his soul. Therein you are both wrong. You lay the stress upon the desire apart from the soul, Miss Brewster lays the stress on the soul apart from the desire, and in point of fact soul and desire are the same thing.
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