7. Indeed, the first point we have all to determine is not how
free we are, but what kind of creatures we are. It is of small
importance to any of us whether we get liberty; but of the
greatest that we deserve it. Whether we can win it, fate must
determine; but that we will be worthy of it we may ourselves
determine; and the sorrowfulest fate of all that we can suffer is
to have it WITHOUT deserving it.

8. I have hardly patience to hold my pen and go on writing, as I
remember the infinite follies of modern thought in this matter,
centered in the notion that liberty is good for a man,
irrespectively of the use he is likely to make of it. Folly
unfathomable! unspeakable! You will send your child, will you,
into a room where the table is loaded with sweet wine and fruit--
some poisoned, some not?--you will say to him, "Choose freely, my
little child! It is so good for you to have freedom of choice; it
forms your character--your individuality! If you take the wrong
cup or the wrong berry, you will die before the day is over, but
you will have acquired the dignity of a Free child."

9. You think that puts the case too sharply? I tell you, lover of
liberty, there is no choice offered to you, but it is similarly
between life and death. There is no act, nor option of act,
possible, but the wrong deed or option has poison in it which will
stay in your veins thereafter forever. Never more to all eternity
can you be as you might have been had you not done that--chosen
that.

10. You have "formed your character," forsooth! No; if you have