for obtaining something.211  Why therefore could not I have so defined it then?  Was it difficult to see that one unwilling is contrary to one willing, just as the left hand is contrary to the right, not as black to white?  For the same thing cannot be at the same time black and white.  But whoever is placed between two men is on the left hand with reference to one, on the right with reference to the other.  One man is both on the right hand and on the left hand at the same time, but by no means both to the one man.  So indeed one mind may be at the same time unwilling and willing, but it cannot be at the same time unwilling and willing with reference to one and the same thing.  For when any one unwillingly does any- thing; if you ask him whether he wished to do it, he says that he did not.  Likewise if you ask whether he wished not to do it, he replies that he did.  So you will find him unwilling with reference to doing, willing with reference to not doing, that is to say, one mind at the same time having both attitudes, but each referring to different things.  Why do I say this?  Because if we should again ask wherefore though unwilling he does this, he will say that he is compelled.  For every one also who does a thing unwillingly is compelled, and every one who is compelled, if he does a thing, does it only unwillingly.  It follows that he that is willing is free from compulsion, even if any one thinks himself compelled.  And in this manner every one who willingly does a thing is not compelled, and whoever is not compelled, either does it willingly or not at all.  Since nature itself proclaims these things in all men whom we can interrogate without absurdity, from the boy even to the old man, from literary sport even to the throne of the wise, why then should I not have seen that in the definition of will should be put, "no one compelling," which now as if with greater experience most cautiously 211 This dictum also Augustin thought it needful to explain:  "This was said that by this definition a willing person might be distinguished from one not willing, and so the intention might be referred to those who first in Paradise were the origin of evil to the human race, by sinning no one compelling, that is by sinning with free will, because also knowingly they sinned against the command, and the tempters persuaded, did not compel, that this should be done.  For he who ignorantly sinned may not incongruously be said to have sinned unwillingly, although not knowing what he did, yet willingly he did it.  So not even the sin of such a one could be without will, which will assuredly, as it has been defined, was a ‘movement of the mind, no one compelling, either for not losing or for obtaining something.’  For he was not compelled to do what if he had been unwilling he would not have done.  Because he willed, therefore he did it, even if he did not sin because he willed, being ignorant that what he did is sin.  So not even such a sin could be without will, but by will of deed not by will of sin, which deed was yet sin; for this deed is what ought not to have taken place.  But whoever knowingly sins, if he can without sin resist the one compelling him to sin, yet resists not, assuredly sins willingly.  For he who can resist is not compelled to yield.  But he who cannot by good will resist cogent covetousness, and therefore does what is contrary to the precepts of righteousness, this now is sin in the sense of being the penalty of sin.  Wherefore it is most true that sin cannot be apart from will." It is needless to say that such reasoning would not have answered Augustin’s purpose in writing against the Manichæans.—A.H.N. 176 Sin is Only from the Will.  His Own Life and Will Best Known to Each Individual. …