WILLAERT
626
WILL
judicial power of valuing or weighing those motives,
with the ability of detaining one or other, for a longer
or shorter period, in the focus of intellectual con-
sciousness. Here we have the beginning of selective
attention. Each exertion of reflection strengthens
voluntai'y, as distinguished from merely spontaneous,
attention. The child becomes more and more able
to attend to the abstract or intellectual representa-
tion, in preference to urgent present feeling which
seeks to express itself in immediate action. This is
furthered by human intercourse, injunctions from
parents and others in regard to conduct, and the like.
The power of resistance to impulse grows. Each
passing inclination, inhibited for the sake of a more
durable good or more abstract motive, involves an
increase in the power of self-control. The child
becomes able to withstand temptation in obedience to
precepts or in accordance with general principles.
The power of steady adhesion to fixed purposes grows
and, by repeated voluntary acts, habits are formed
which in the aggregate constitute formed character.
Will and Movement. — The structure of the nervous system of man, it has been well said, prepares us for action. Long before the will, properly so called, comes upon the scene, a whole marvellous vital mech- anism has been at work; thus it happens that we find ourselves at the very outset of our rational life pos- sessed of a thousand tendencies, preferences, dexteri- ties — the product partly of inheritance and partly of our infantile experience working by the laws of association and habit. The question, therefore, as to how this early organization and co-ordination of movement take place, though an essential preliminary to the study of will, is nevertheless only a preliminary, and not a constituent, branch of that study. Hence we can deal with it here only briefly. Bain's theory is perhaps the best known — the theory of random or spontaneous movement. According to this accotmt, the nervous system is in its nature an accumulator of energy, which energy under certain obscure organic conditions breaks out in tumultuous, purposeless fashion, without any sensible stimulation either from without or from within. The result of such outpour- ings of energy is sometimes pleasurable, sometimes the reverse. Nature, by the law of conservation, preserves those movements which produce pleasure, while she inhibits other movements. Thus "nature" really works purposively, for these pleasant move- ments are also for the most part beneficial to the animal. The process is very much the same as " natural selection " in the biological field. As regards this theory we may briefly note as follows: (1) It is true, as modern child-psychology shows, that move- ments are learnt in some way. The child has to learn even the outlines of its own body. (2) There is a good deal of apparently purposeless movement in children and all young animals, which, no doubt, constitutes their "motor-education". (.3) At the same time, it is not so clear that these movements are simply a physical discharge of energy, tmattended by conscious antecedents. Some vague feeling of dis- comfort, of pent-up powers, some appetition or con- scious tendency to movement, in short, may very well be supposed. There would thus be the germ of a purpose in the creature's first essays at realizing the tendency and satisfying a felt need.
Experimental Will-Psi/ehologii. — One of the least promising departments of mental life for the experi- mental psychologist is will. In common with all the higher activities of the soul, the subjection of the phenomena of rational volition to the methods of experimental psychology presents serious difliculties. In addition, the characteristic prerogative of the human will — freedom — would seem to be necessarily recalcitrant against scientific law and measurement, and thus to render hi ipcle.ssly inapplicable the machi- nery of the new brancli of mental research. However,
the problem has been courageously attacked by the
Wiirzburg and Louvain Schools. Diff'erent properties
of choice, the formation and operation of various
kinds of motives, the process of judging values, the
transition from volition to habit or spontaneous action,
the reaction-time of acts of decision and their realiza-
tion, and other incidental will-phenomena have been
made the subject of the most careful investigation
and, where possible, calculation.
By the multiplication of ex-perimental choices, and the taking of averages, results of an objective charac- ter have been, it is contended, secured. The psycho- logical value of these researches, and the quantity of new light they are likely to shed on all the more important questions connected with the human will, is still a subject of controversy; but the patience, skiU, and ingenuity, with which these experiment sand observations have been carried out, are indisputable.
Mercier. Psyrhologie (Louvain, 1903); Maher, Psychology (7th od.. London, 1911): G.^RDaiR, Les passions et la volonti (Pari , IviM' ros-sEGRivE, Le libre arbilre (Parw. 1894); Bain, En..' \: " I London, 1894); James, The Feeling of Effort
in .1' I I "KM, What the Will Effects in Scribner's Monthly
(ISMt .i \ M I 1!i'"matisme psychologique (Paris, 1889).
On LxiKTiiut'iiial Psychology- of Will. — Michotte and Prttm, Elude expenmenlale sur le choii volontaire (Louvain. 1910); Boyd Barrett, Motive Force and Motiralion-Tracks (London and Louvain, 1911). See Chabacteb, Interest. Reason, Pst-
CHOLOGT.
Michael Maher. Joseph Bolland.
Willaert, Adrian, composer and founder of the Venetian school, b. at Bruges, or, according to other authorities, at Roulers, Netherlands, between 1480 and 1490; d. at Venice, 7 December, 1.562. Willaert, taught in Paris by Jean MouHn, disciple of Josquin Depres, first went to Rome in 1516, then to Ferrara, after which he entered the service of King Louis II of Bohemia and Hungarj-. On 12 Dec. 1527, he ac- cepted the post of choir master of St. Mark's at Venice. Although grounded in the principles of contrapuntal art, Willaert soon fell under the influence of the new tendenc}', developing in Florence and elsewhere in Italy, to make the harmonic element predominate over the melodic. As there were two choir lofts, one on each side of the main altar of St. IMark's, both provided with an organ, Willaert divided the choral body into two sections, using them either antipho- nally or simultaneously. He then composed and per- formed psalms and other works for two alternating choirs. This innovation met with instantaneous success and strongly influenced the development of the new method. Willaert was no less distinguished as a teacher than as a composer. Among his disciples are: Ciprian de Rore, his successor at St. Mark's; Costanzo Porta; P'rancesco della Viola; Giuseppe Zarlino; and the two Gabrielis, Andrea and Giovanni. These formed the Venetian school. Willaert left a large number of compositions — masses, psalms, motets, madrigals, for from four to seven voices — preser\-ed in collections dating from his time.
Jacob, Die Kunst im jDienste der Kirehe (Landshut, 1885); Mendel, Musikalisches Conversalionsleiikon, XI (Berlin, 1879); Ambbos, Gesch. der Musik, III (Leipzig, 1881); Rockstro, A general history o/ music (New York, 1886); Woolridge, Oxford history of music, 11 (Oxford, 1905).
Joseph Otten.
Will and Testament of Clerics. — Roman law allowed clerics to dispose of their prn|ierty by will or otherwise. Bishoi)S, however, were incapable of bequeathing goods acquired in the episcopate, these going to pious purposes in the diocese of the deceased. Goods possessed by bishops before entering the epis- coiiate, as well as the property of all clerics dying intestate, passed on to their lawful heirs, or, when these were wanting, to the churches to which the decedents were attached (Cod. Just., lib. I, titt. iii, xli, §§5, 6; Novel., cxxiii, 10; cxxxi VX). Clerics succeeded to the property of intestates in the same
