he
first, so long as one can only adduce proofs of feeling. For we should feel
with an equal force that we wish this or that, whether all our volitions
were imprinted upon our soul by an exterior and invisible cause, or we
formed them ourselves.'

300. There are here excellent arguments, which are valid against the usual
systems; but they fail in respect of the System of Pre-established Harmony,
which takes us further than we were able to go formerly. M. Bayle asserts,
for instance, 'that by purely philosophical meditations one can never
attain to an established certainty that we are the efficient cause of our
volitions'. But this is a point which I do not concede to him: for the
establishment of this system demonstrates beyond a doubt that in the course
of nature each substance is the sole cause of all its actions, and that it
is free of all physical influence from every other substance, save the
customary co-operation of God. And this system shows that our spontaneity
is real, and not only apparent, as Herr Wittich believed it to be. M. Bayle
asserts also on the same reasons (ch. 170, p. 1132) that if there were a
_fatum Astrologicum_ this would not destroy freedom; and I would concede
that to him, if freedom consisted only in an apparent spontaneity.

301. The spontaneity of our actions can therefore no longer be questioned;
and Aristotle has defined it well, saying that an action is [310]
_spontaneous_ when its source is in him who acts. 'Spontaneum est, cujus
principium est in agente.' Thus it is that our actions and our wills depend
entirely upon us. It is true that we are not directly the masters of our
will, although we be its cause; for we do not choose volitions, as we
choose our actions by our volitions. Yet we have a certain power also over
our will, because we can contribute indirectly towards willing another time
that which we would fain will now, as I have here already shown: that,
however, is no _velleity_, properly speaking. There also we have a mastery,
individual and even perceptible, over our actions and our wills, resulting
from a combination of spontaneity with intelligence.

302. Up to this point I have expounded the two conditions of freedom
mentioned by Aristotle, that is, _spontaneity_ and _intelligence_, which
are found united in us in deliberation, whereas beasts lack the second
condition. But the Schoolmen demand yet a third, which they call
_indifference_. And indeed one must adm