27. Freedom.
First, then, it is carefully to be remembered, That freedom consists in the dependence of the
existence, or not existence of any action, upon our volition of it; and not in the dependence of any action, or its
contrary, on our preference. A man standing on a cliff, is at liberty to leap twenty yards downwards into the sea,
not because he has a power to do the contrary action, which is to leap twenty yards upwards, for that he cannot do;
but he is therefore free, because he has a power to leap or not to leap. But if a greater force than his, either holds
him fast, or tumbles him down, he is no longer free in that case; because the doing or forbearance of that
particular action is no longer in his power. He that is a close prisoner in a room twenty feet square, being at the
north side of his chamber, is at liberty to walk twenty feet southward, because he can walk or not walk it; but is
not, at the same time, at liberty to do the contrary, i.e., to walk twenty feet northward.
In this, then, consists freedom, viz., in our being able to act or not to act, according as we shall choose or will.
