IX 



"FATED TO BE FREE" 

 I 



THE question of fate and free will is hoary 

 with age. In touching upon the subject here, I 

 have little hope that I can put a youthful face upon 

 it. But it seems to me that the question has been 

 discussed mainly on religious and metaphysical 

 grounds. I have in mind to see what light can be 

 thrown upon the subject from the consideration of 

 our relation to the natural world around us and 

 within us. The moment we think of ourselves as a 

 part of this natural world, with its laws and forces 

 vital within us and an innate part of our essential 

 being, the problem takes on a new aspect. The neces- 

 sity that rules us is no longer foreign to us, but is the 

 essence of our own wills. Our sense of freedom is 

 as clear and secure as our own eyesight. 



The phrase "fated to be free," is Emerson's, and 

 well expresses the kind of contradiction and mar- 

 riage of opposites that we find everywhere in nature 

 and in life. "Man is fated to be free." The deter- 

 minism of the nature within him and without him 

 does not blunt or abridge his sense of absolute free- 

 dom of choice. He always feels himself free to choose 



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