the phenomena of the Sensibility on the one hand, and of the Will on the
other? But one supposition accounts for this fact, the universal
consciousness, that the former are necessary, and the latter free that
in the circumstances of their occurrence the former may not, and the
latter may, be different from what they are.
5. On any other theory than that of Liberty, the words, obligation,
merit and demerit, &c., are words without meaning. A man is, we will
suppose, by Divine Providence, placed in circumstances in which he
cannot possibly but pursue one given course, or, which is the same
thing, put forth given determinations. When it is said that, in these
identical circumstances, he ought to pursue a different and opposite
course, or to put forth different and opposite determinations, what
conceivable meaning can we attach to the word _ought_, here? There is
nothing, in the circumstances supposed, which the word, _ought_, or
obligation, can represent. If we predicate merit or demerit of an
individual thus circumstanced, we use words equally without meaning.
Obligation and moral desert, in such a case, rest upon "airy nothing,"
without a "local habitation or a name."
On the other hand, if we suppose that the right and the wrong are at all
times equally possible to an individual; that when he chooses the one,
he might, in the same identical circumstances, choose the other;
infinite meaning attaches to the words, ought, obligation, merit and
demerit, when it is said that an individual thus circumstanced ought to
do the right and avoid the wrong, and that he merits reward or
punishment, when he does the one, or does not do the other. The ideas of
obligation, merit and demerit, reward and punishment, and probation with
reference to a state of moral retribution, are all chimeras, on any
other supposition than that of the Liberty of the Will. With this
doctrine, they all perfectly harmonize.
6. All moral government, all laws, human and Divine, have their basis in
the doctrine of Liberty; and are the perfection of tyranny, on any other
supposition. To place creatures in circumstances which necessitate a
given course of conduct, and render every other course impossible, and
then to require of them, under the heaviest sanctions, a different and
opposite course--what can be tyranny if this is not?
OBJECTION IN BAR OF AN APPEAL TO CONSCIOUSNESS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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