  Important lessons were learned in the anguish of these vicissitudes and deliberations. In a letter to a friend, Ward writes: “I am coming to see more clearly every day that man is only half free, or rather that his freedom is not what I once thought it. It is not the power to choose anything, but only the power to choose between alternatives offered, and what these shall be circumstances determine quite as will” (59). Surely, this insight owes more to the struggle of existence than to abstract speculation. Interestingly, Ward’s mature philosophy comprises a defense of human freedom and sustains the idea that—independently of circumstances outside of our control—we always retain a capacity for responsible action.