172 Statement of the question by Delbceuf. CHAP. 



and yet say that in some transcendental sense they 

 are believers in Moral Freedom. If I do not misunder- 

 stand them, this is the position of Dr. Chalmers and 

 of the Duke of Argyll. The question cannot be 

 stated in more suitable words than those of Professor 

 Delboeuf, of Liege J : 



" The fundamental proposition of determinism is 

 the following : The present state of the universe, 

 and consequently the movement of the least of its 

 atoms, is the necessary and the only possible con- 

 sequence of its immediately preceding state, and the 

 sufficient cause of its immediately following state; 

 so that a sufficiently powerful intelligence would be 

 able from a single glance (at the present state of the 

 universe) to infer its entire past and its entire future. 



" The partial denial of this proposition will evi- 

 dently give the definition (of freedom) which we 

 seek : Freedom is a faculty or power, which produces 

 movements which are not implied (renferme's) in the 

 immediately preceding movements, and consequently 

 cannot be predicted" (by any intelligence, however 

 powerful, which acts under the same conditions as ours). 



I have added the concluding words to Delboeuf s, 

 because I believe that the Divine Intelligence does 

 not exist under the same conditions as that of Man, 

 but transcends time, and comprehends all things 

 past, present, and future. 



1 Bulletin de I'Academie Royale de Belyique. 3me serie, tome 

 1, No. 4, 1881. 3me serie, No. 2, 1882. The quotation in the 

 text is from the latter of these two memoirs. 



