In this case, even if we possessed the power of doing something by
ourselves, we would not be any the less than the remainder of the
universe subjected to necessity, because Fate, containing the whole
series of causes, necessarily determines each event. Now since Fate
includes all causes, there is nothing which could hinder the occurrence
of that event, or alter it. If then everything obeys the impulsion of
a single principle, nothing is left to us but to follow it. Indeed,
in this case, the fancies of our imagination would result from
anterior facts, and would in turn determine our appetites; our liberty
would then have become a mere word; nor would we gain any advantage
from obeying our appetites, since our appetites themselves will be
determined by anterior facts. We would have no more liberty than the
other animals, than children, or the insane, who run hither and yon,
driven by blind appetites; for they also obey their appetites, as fire
would do, and as all the things which fatally follow the dispositions
of their nature. These objections will be decisive for those capable of
apprehending them; and in the search for other causes of our appetites
they will not content themselves with the principles which we have
examined.