Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/22

 freedom, and being persuad’d that they feel themselves free on a thousand occasions. And the source of their mistake, seems to be as follows. They either attend not to, or see not the causes of their actions, especially in matters of little moment, and thence conclude, they are free, or not mov’d by causes, to do what they do.

They also frequently do actions whereof they repent: and because in the repenting humour, they find no present motive to do those actions, they conclude, that they might not have done them at the time they did them, and that they were free from necessity (as they were from outward impediments) in the doing them.

They also find, that they can do as they will, and forbear as they will, without any external impediment to hinder them from doing as they will; let them will either doing or forbearing. They likewise see, that they often change their minds; that they can, and do chuse differently every successive moment; and that they frequently deliberate, and thereby are sometimes at a near ballance, and in a state of indifference with respect