“There is much truth in what you say,” said I, “and yet no man ever acts upon this theory. Who, when he makes a choice, says, ‘Thus I choose, because I am necessitated?’ Does he not on the contrary feel a freedom of will within him, which, though you may call it fallacious, still actuates him as he decides?”

“Exactly so,” replied Raymond, “another link of the breakless chain. Were I now to commit an act which would annihilate my hopes, and pluck the regal garment from my mortal limbs, to clothe them in ordinary weeds, would this, think you, be an act of free will on my part?”