LIBERTY AND NECESSITY. 483 



sophical system, the very same mistake which their 

 adversaries commit in obedience to theirs; and in 

 consequence do really in some instances (I speak from 

 personal experience) suffer those depressing conse- 

 quences, which their opponents erroneously impute 

 to the doctrine itself. 



$ 3. I am inclined to think that this error is almost 

 wholly an effect of the associations with a word; and 

 that it would be prevented by forbearing to employ, for 

 the expression of the simple fact of causation, so 

 extremely inappropriate a term as Necessity. That 

 word, in its other acceptations, involves much more 

 than mere uniformity of sequence ; it implies irresisti- 

 bleness. Applied to the will, it only means that the 

 given cause will be followed by the effect, subject to all 

 possibilities of counteraction by other causes: but in 

 common use it stands for the operation of those causes 

 exclusively, which are supposed too powerful to be 

 counteracted at all. When we say that all human 

 actions take place of necessity, we only mean that they 

 will certainly happen if nothing prevents: when we 

 say that dying of want, to those who cannot get food, 

 is a necessity, we mean that it will certainly happen 

 whatever may be done to prevent it. The application 

 of the same term to the agencies on which human 

 actions depend, as is used to express those agencies of 

 nature which are really uncontrollable, cannot fail, 

 when habitual, to create a feeling of uncontrollableness 

 in the former also. This however is a mere illusion. 

 There are physical sequences which we call necessary, 

 as death for want of food or air; there are others which 

 are not said to be necessary, as death from poison, 

 which an antidote, or the use of the stomach pump, will 

 sometimes avert. It is apt to be forgotten by people's 



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