9. All things therefore, which result either from a choice by the soul,
or from exterior circumstances, are "necessary," or determined by a
cause. Could anything, indeed, be found outside of these causes? If we
gather into one glance all the causes we admit, we find the principles
that produce everything, provided we count, amidst external causes,
the influence exercised by the course of the stars. When a soul makes
a decision, and carries it out because she is impelled thereto by
external things, and yields to a blind impulse, we should not consider
her determination and action to be free. The soul is not free when,
perverting herself, she does not make decisions which direct her in the
straight path. On the contrary, when she follows her own guide, pure
and impassible reason, her determination is really voluntary, free and
independent, and the deed she performs is really her own work, and not
the consequence of an exterior impulse; she derives it from her inner
power, her pure being, from the primary and sovereign principle which
directs her, being deceived by no ignorance, nor vanquished by the
power of appetites; for when the appetites invade the soul, and subdue
her, they drag her with them by their violence, and she is rather
"passive" than "active" in what she does.