Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/28

 Italian Wit, has written a most subtile and ingenious book intituled, Labyrinths concerning Free-will and Predestination, &c. wherein he shews, that they who assert, that Man acts freely, are involv’d in four great difficulties; and that those who assert that Man acts necessarily, fall into four other difficulties. So that he forms eight Labyrinths, four against Liberty, and four against Necessity. He turns himself all manner of ways to get clear of them; but not being able to find any solution, he constantly concludes with a Prayer to to deliver him from these Abysses. Indeed, in the progress of his work, he endeavors to furnish means to get out of this prison: but he concludes that the only way, is to say, with, ''Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio. We ought, says he, to rest contented, and conclude, that requires neither the affirmative nor negative of us''. This is the title of his last chapter, Qua via ex omnibus supradictis Labyrinthis cito exiri possit, quæ doctæ ignorantiæ via vocatur.

A famous author, who appeals to common experience, for a proof of liberty, confesses, that the question of liberty