ABSTRACT

Being confined by the king’s particular command, I found there was no chance of making my escape by the power of money, I therefore thought it best to sum up all my patience, and wait the effect of time. Here it was that I first formed my notions, which I afterwards promulgated in England, of absolute necessity presiding over all the actions of man. Upon this ground, I cordially forgave his majesty for taking away my liberty, because I knew he could not avoid it; and I now, also, freely / pardoned the mountaineers who had robbed and endeavoured to kill me, as I firmly believe that ‘the assassin cannot help the murder he commits, any more than the dagger.*’ My marriage with Pandora I ascribed to the divinity of necessity, 136 or I should have been very much ashamed of myself for having committed such a fraudulent † act. I received too no inconsiderable relief from the reflection, that my wife had considered our marriage as a mere form, and no kind of tie that prevented her from distributing her favours universally. To / her unrestrained prostitution, I ascribe all that ease of manner, flow of fancy, and graceful intrepidity of thinking, which rendered her so amiable in my eyes‡. My tenet on this head was, that ‘marriage is an affair of property,’ (the property, your wife – which most men will agree with me in acknowledging to be) ‘the worst of all properties§.’ By my ingenious rule it may be seen, that no man can be deemed either virtuous / or vicious, since he is not the master of his actions. 139