whether he is willing, or not, to come into the world. Nature does
not consult him upon the country and parents she gives him.
His acquired ideas, his opinions, his notions true or false, are
necessary fruits of the education which he has received, and of
which he has not been the director. His passions and desires are
necessary consequences of the temperament given him by nature.
During his whole life, his volitions and actions are determined by
his connections, habits, occupations, pleasures, and conversations;
by the thoughts, that are involuntarily presented to his mind; in
a word, by a multitude of events and accidents, which it is out of
his power to foresee or prevent. Incapable of looking into futurity,
he knows not what he will do. From the instant of his birth to that
of his death, he is never free. You will say, that he wills,
deliberates, chooses, determines; and you will hence conclude,
that his actions are free. It is true, that man wills, but he
is not master of his will or his desires; he can desire and will
only what he judges advantageous to himself; he can neither love
pain, nor detest pleasure. It will be said, that he sometimes
prefers pain to pleasure; but then he prefers a momentary pain
with a view of procuring a greater and more durable pleasure.
In this case, the prospect of a greater good necessarily determines
him to forego a less considerable good.

The lover does not give his mistress the features which captivate him;
he is not then master of loving, or not loving the object of his
tenderness; he is not master of his imagination or temperament.
Whence it evidently follows, that man is not master of his volitions
and desires. "But man," you will say, "can resist his desires;
therefore he is free." Man resists his desires, when the motives,
which divert him from an object, are stronger than those, which