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FREE WILL AND FATALISM. which we shall develop presently, represent very widely divergent schemes of thought, which put a different interpretation upon every thing in nature and life of which we shall have occasion to speak later on. Those who maintain the first one of these two alternative doctrines, call themselves, 'Necessitarians'; because under the assigned conditions, the sequence of one particular volition, in their opinion, is an inevitable event which is no less than the falling of a book when blown off from the roof of a house. And those who maintain the second one of the alternatives, call themselves 'Libertarians,' because they deem it possible, inspite of the assigned condition, for the mind to will, or not to will, or to will otherwise. It is not obliged to deliver itself to a bespoken judgment or submit to the verdict of Nature. The former thinkers regard man as simply a product or an effect of cosmic evolution while the latter as an originating cause capable of determining what was indeterminate before. According to the former view man has been throughout, and has always
349
The Fatalists
and Free
willists.
