Many such cases lead to the general position that for each of our intentional actions we must have some way of thinking about the action, of remembering how it feels, looks, etc.; we must have something in mind _equivalent_ to the experience of the movement.

This is called the principle of Kinaesthetic Equivalents, an expression which loses its formidable sound when we remember that "kinaesthetic" means having the feeling of movement; so the principle expresses the truth that we must in every case have some thought or mental picture in mind which is equivalent to the feeling of the movement we desire to make; if not, we can not succeed in making it.
What we mean by the "freedom" of the will is not ability to do anything without thinking, but ability to think all the alternatives together and to act on this larger thought.

Free action is the fullest expression of thought and of the Self which thinks it.
It is interesting to observe the child getting his Equivalents day by day.

He can not perform a new movement simply by wishing to do so; he has no Equivalents in his mind to proceed upon.

But as he learns the action, gradually striking the proper movements one by one--oftenest by imitation, as we will see later on--he stores the necessary Equivalents up in his memory, and afterward only needs to think how the movements feel or look, or how words sound, to be able to make the movements or speak the words forthwith.
III.