American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1826-05-26

ssPPo'hS ebliilon p'aCt CONVERSATION lot
several minutes, he relspsed into silence. TIL
ladies' soon left US, and then it was tina, determined
70 sound him as delicatey as could ON the stare of
| his mind.
The fire was blazing brightly, for the evening
was frosty and calm we had drawn our chairs
round 1t, and again urged him to take wine 81
nave not tasted wine" SAID he, these twenty years
and may not taste it while ive."--" Perhaps 1t
disagrees with you you may be o! cousumpive or
inflammatory habit? :" know not " hat you mt an
by inAammatory,". said he ",here are inHam
lions OF the body AID ln1ammalions of the mind
mine IS, believe, OF the latter description Is it
not strange" continued he abruptly, that the only
individual saved out of whole ships company
should be one who desired it MT? Heavens If YOU
had heard the lamentations oil the poor wretches in
thai vessel when she struck il you had seen their
wild ard despsiing luoks- strange. strange that
they should perish and survive Are you !sta,
listTo
must confess, thai this commence ment Of fami-
iiarty between US by no means delighted me. |
looked a. my guest again, and saw with horror
sort OF smile or grin upon hts couttenance indira
tive OF feeling such as could not commend ..
am not fatalist" answered | NOR am able TO
CONCEIVE how any rational being can adont creed
so absurd. He who regards himself as the mete
tool OF invncibie destiny hold his opinion IN
direct opposition to the surest OF all tesrimony-that
! OF consciousness Yet some ct the wisest men
the world has ever produt ed, were tatasts" eoin
ed he. "Among the c, LIBERATED W tiers of ant,ouiy
almost all were iatalists. Homer and Hesiod we {
both aialisIs. Socrates and Plato ere Of the same
way OF thinking; SO were Zeno, Chrysppus Epi
Gurus, and all the Stoies. So Herodotus, SO was
LucreIius Seneca has declared, ,ha, the same
cham OF necessity constrains both gods and men !;
aud even Cicero shows, in more passages than one
leaning favourable to similar view OF the subject
In India, fatalism has ever prevailed. Those wise
men, tor an acquaintance with whose philosophy
The sages oil Greece scruped not to undertake long
and dangerous journeys, all believers in ire.
sistlbc destiny and the principles which they held
their descendants hold at this present day Mahom
med was fatast, and though he played upon the
credulity of mankind, who will deny him the praise
oil transcendent talents And 10 come nearer home
has not our own country produced hos, oil faia,ts
among her distinguished sonsi What was Hobbes
Lord Kames, Hume, Priestley, ay, and greater than
all these, what was Locke? A man may well be
pardoned who adopts opinions which can be sup
| ported by sue names as these"
| Though not very anxious to enter into meta
physical discussion, and 'hcup h. indeed | had no
ped to draw my pues' into on his own
situation and circumstances rather than to follow
| him through the bbyrinth in O which saw we
were abr Ut to plunge. considered it doe to my
chara' ter and staten noit this remark With
respect 20 the classical writer's you have named"
replied l. it is ve'y true that the greater number
are generally considered to have held the sentim.
you attribute to them nv own persuasion how
ever IS, that the opinion is i'll iounded Whether
Socrates atalst or not, we are scarcely com
petent to Judge, inasmuch none of his own wit
Ings have come down TO us but see no decided
proof OF the matter in the account given OF his phi
losophy ny bis pupils Il was surely not consistent
with fatalism to look forward he undeniably did
to state of rewards and punishmens beyond the
| Ill
ly contrary to theory, which necessarily depends
upon moral responsibility; for moral responsibility
cannot exist without peifect freedom Of will Of
all the philosophers, therefore, whom you have
enumerated, perhaps LUcretiUs is, in point OF fact
the only real atalst. Seneca speaks indeed, in the
sentence referred to- too strongly but he han
once contrad cts himself, whilst his reflections on
the approach OF death clearly imply that, in the
proper sense OF the line he was no fatalist. The
fatalism OF Aristotle and Plato, again. extended only
TO such matters as should cali accidental occur
rences indeed, it may be held as a general truth
that not one among them all, Lucretus only excep
ted, no, not the Stoics themselves, carried their
notions on this head into the region OF morals. As
proof of ihis you have only attend to the lead
ing principle of their doctrines. The true Stoics
held that the mind should not depend upon the
body at all that perfection was to be attained only
by the absolute subsection Of the passions to the un
dersandng Now, such an opinion cannot surely
subsist, with persuasion, that man is mere ma
chine, continually guided by the most pressing mo
tives. For This, a. prehend, is all that can be
meant by moral fatalism. That you should have
enumerated Cicero among the defenders OF fatal
ism, particularly surprises me. True, he some
times employs the common language of the day,
exactly as might remark, that the falling of my
horse, or the dislocation of my arm, occurred by
chance, though quite aware that chance is nonen
tity. But when he seriously treats OF fate, and its
influence, he attributes to it more power than
we should attribute TO providence. Lucrcnus was
indeed latalist, and to teach fatalsm in its true