"FATED TO BE FREE" 



We are not free in the physical order; how, then, 

 are we free in the moral order? We cannot be wise 

 at will, or always choose the best course, or always 

 speak the right word, but we are free because we 

 feel that we are free. We have moral freedom. We 

 are willing to be held responsible for the choice we 

 make, though that choice be in reahty not so much 

 a matter of our wills as a matter of our characters — 

 a vague, non-scientific term with a very uncertain 

 content. 



The big man who marries the little woman, and 

 the little woman who accepts the big man, both feel 

 that they had perfect freedom of choice, yet is it not 

 clear that there is a law in such matters? In fact, 

 is it not clear that most marriages are complemen- 

 tary, — black eyes with blue, slowness with quick- 

 ness, weakness with strength, — though the con- 

 tracting parties yielded, as it seemed to them, to the 

 utmost freedom of choice? Their wills were free — 

 to do what Nature wanted them to do. Her pur- 

 pose was deeper than theirs. 



A man is free to elect heaven or hell, if heaven or 

 hell have a mortgage upon him. But if it have, 

 he never will know it, and will credit himself with 

 absolute power of choice. Hence, we say the will 

 is free, though freedom only means the absence of 

 any conscious restraint. 



In the pride of our wills we boast that we are 

 masters of our fate, and so we are in a very limited 

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