# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com
# Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0139
# Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0139?run=74
# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 123, page id 778263916:0139
# Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=139
# Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000139.jpg
# Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 59 lines, status machine
# Lines: 59 recognised, mean confidence 0.89
# Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German.
# Licence: CC BY 4.0, Leibniz Legible. Machine output: do not ingest it as verified text; keep this provenance with the text.
# Wording rule: say "the machine reads it as …", never "Leibniz wrote".
# After the first blank line: the recognised lines in reading order, one per line.

21
ter
EB
6. 25. Since then it is plain, a Ntan is noc at liberer, Whether he will
Willu Or no; (For Wrhen a chins in his porrer is propoled tohis Thoushts.
he cannot forbear Volition, he must determine onc tray or Orher;) the
Dext chins to be demanded is, Trhether a Man be at liberty to will mhich
of the rvo he pleases, Motion or Rest. This Ouection carries the absurdi.
ty oF it (o manisesls in it sels, that onc mishe thereby susticiently be con-
vinced, that Liberty concerns not the Will in any cale. For toask, WHe.
ther a man be at liberey to will citherMotion, or Rest; Speakins, or Silence;
irhich he pleases, is ro astc, Whether a Man ean Will, rhat he willS; Or B0
pleased ith irhat he is pleasedrith. A Ouestion irhich, I chink, neccs no
ansver: and cher, wrto can make a Duestion ofit, must suxpole one W iII
to determine the acs of another, and anoctier to determinate chat; and
Ioon in infinitum, an absurdity betore talien notiee ot.
6. 26. Toaroid chese, and the litre absurdiries, nothine can be ol greater
ulc, than to establitr in ourMinds clear and Ceady Notions oF the things
under Consideration it the Ideas of Liberty, and Volition, vere vellfixed in
our Understandinss, and carried alone with us in our Mincs, as thoy
oushE, chroush all ehe Ouections are raised about them, I suppole, a preat
part oFthe Difticulties, that perplex Nens Thoughs, and entangle their
Onderstandings, Would be much casier resolved; and we Mould perceive
inliere the contused signification ol terms, or Where thenature olthe thins
caused the obscuritr.
6. 27. First chen, it is caresully to be remembred, That Freedom con-
sists in the dependence of the Fxistence, or not Fxistence of any Action, up-
on our Volition of it, and not in the dependence of any action, or its contra-
ry, on our preference. A Man Randins on a clift, is at liberty to leap
erener Lards domnrardsintothe sea; notbecause he has a porver todo
the concrari Action, Which is to leap tivener Vards uprards, For thathe
Cannot do: buthe is theretore tree, because he has a porver to lcap, or
nOt to lcap. But il a greater force than his, cither hold him talt, ortumble
him dorn, he is no longer trec in thar case: becaule the doins, or Por-
Bearance, ot that parricular Action, is no longer in his Porer. He that is
a close Prisoner, in a Room tventy foot square, beine at the North. side OF
his Chamber, is at liberts to nalk tirents foor Southwarc, becausche can
Wrall, or not alkit: but is nor, at the lame time, at liberer, to do the eon
trary; i. c. to Walkementy FootNorthward.
In this then consiAS Freedom (Viz.) in our beins able to act, or nOt t0
act accordins as we Mall choole, Or. Will.
28. Secondly, In the next place we must remember, that Volition or
Willinc recardins only irhrat is in our pover, is nochins bur the prefer-
rine che doing ot any chins, tothe nor doins ofit; action to Relt, (6 con-
tra. Well, but rhat is this Preferring: It is nothins but the beine plea
sed more miththe one; than the other. Is then a Man inditterent tob0
pleasec, or notpleased, more ith onc thine than anorher: Is it in his
choice, Whether tie ill, or Will not be better pleased with one thins than
arocher: And to this, Ichink, every ones Experience is ready tomato
anSIVer, NO. From WWhenCO it FOIIOWS,
6. 29. Thrraly, Lhatthe Nill, Ortreterence, is determined ) Jomethine
viihour it selF. Let us sec then whar it is determinedby. IEillins he but
ehie Deins becter pleascd, as has been Mern, it is casie to hnom whrat tis de-
termines ehe Will, Wrhat tis pleales best: every one knoms tis Fappinels,
Or Fhat Which makes any part ol Fappinels, or contributes to it; arid thaF
is it re call 60od. FTarpinels and Misery are thC HaMES OF FWO CXtreICS,
the utmost bounds irhereot We LNO nOE: TiS WhaE Lye hath not seen,
FA
over.