LIBERTY.
Either I am much deceived, or Locke has very well defined liberty to be "power". I am still further deceived, or Collins, a celebrated magistrate of London, is the only philosopher who has profoundly developed this idea, while Clarke has only answered him as a theologian. Of all that has been written in France on liberty, the following little dialogue has appeared to me the most comprehensive:
A. A battery of cannon is discharged at our ears; have you the liberty to hear it, or not to hear it, as you please?
B. Undoubtedly I cannot hinder myself from hearing it.
A. Are you willing that these cannon shall take off your head and those of your wife and daughter who walk with you?
B. What a question! I cannot, at least while I am in my right senses, wish such a thing; it is impossible.
A. Good; you necessarily hear these cannon, and you necessarily wish not for the death of yourself and your family by a discharge from them. You have neither the power of not hearing it, nor the power of wishing to remain here.
B. That is clear.
A. You have, I perceive, advanced thirty paces to be out of the reach of the cannon; you have had the power of walking these few steps with me.
B. That is also very clear.