2. _Habits._--Habits in the long run become, it is true, irresistible. It is a fact which has been often observed; but if, on the one hand, an inveterate habit is irresistible, it is not so in the beginning, and man is thus free to prevent the encroachments of bad habits. It is for this reason that moralists warn us above all against the beginnings of habits. "Beware especially of beginnings," says the _Imitation_. 3. _Passions._--Passions have especially enjoyed the privilege of passing for uncontrollable and irresistible. All great sinners find their excuse in the fatal allurements of passions. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," says the Gospel. The remarks we have just made touching the habits, may be equally applied to the passions. It is rare that passions manifest themselves all of a sudden, and with that excess of violence which, breaking upon one unexpectedly and like a delirium, assume, indeed, all the appearances of a fatality. But, as a general thing, passions grow little by little. "Some smaller crimes always precede the greater crimes." It is especially when the first attacks of a passion begin to show themselves that it should be energetically fought down. 4. _Education and circumstances._--The education one has received, the circumstances one finds himself in, may put a limit to his liberty; and man is not wholly responsible for the impulses which he may owe to example and the bad principles in which he may have been brought up. These may, perhaps, be called _attenuating circumstances_; but they do not go so far as wholly to suppress liberty and responsibility. In the appreciation of _other people's acts_, we may allow the _attenuating circumstances_ as large a margin as possible, but in the case of self-government, one should make it as strict and narrow as possible. No one having, in fact, a measure by which he may determine his moral strength in an absolute manner, it is better to aim too high than too low. One should be guided by the principle that nothing is impossible to him who has a strong will; for "we can do a thing when we think we can." In conclusion, liberty means nothing else but _moral strength_. Experience certifies that man can become the master of the physical nature which he can subject to his designs; he can gain the mastery over his own body, his passions, his habits, his own disposition; in a word, he can be "master of himself." In thus ascending, step by step, from exterior nature to the body, from the body to the passions, from the passions to the habits and the character, we arrive at the first motor of action which moves everything without being moved: namely, liberty. =13. Merit and demerit.=--We call in general _merit_ the quality by virtue of which a moral agent renders himself worthy of a reward; and _demerit_ that by which he renders himself, so to say, worthy of punishment.