The Commens Dictionary

Quote from ‘Lecture I [R]’

…the doctrine of the necessitarians is that when the time for action comes, we act under a necessity which we cannot then control. I dare say they may be substantially right. We cannot control the actions that are past. But our future actions we can determine in a measure. Knowing that, we deliberate and formulate an ideal of conduct and then, having formulated our ideal, we go through a process similar to that of impressing a lesson on our memory, whereby mere resolutions are converted into determinations which are acquired dispositions.