This somewhat strange doctrine finds the most explicit and full expression in La Saisiaz.  “Fancy,” amongst the concessions it demands from “Reason,” claims that man should know—­not merely surmise or fear—­that every action done in this life awaits its proper and necessary meed in the next.

                “I also will that man become aware
  Life has worth incalculable, every moment that he spends
  So much gain or loss for that next life which on this life depends."[A]

[Footnote A:  La Saisiaz.]

But Reason refuses the concession, upon the ground that such sure knowledge would be destructive of the very distinction between right and wrong, which the demand implies.  The “promulgation of this decree,” by Fancy, “makes both good and evil to cease.”  Prior to it “earth was man’s probation-place”; but under this decree man is no longer free; for certain knowledge makes action necessary.

  “Once lay down the law, with Nature’s simple ’Such effects succeed
  Causes such, and heaven or hell depends upon man’s earthly deed
  Just as surely as depends the straight or else the crooked line
  On his making point meet point or with or else without incline,’
  Thenceforth neither good nor evil does man, doing what he must."[A]

[Footnote A:  La Saisiaz, 195.]

If we presuppose that “man, addressed this mode, be sound and sane” (and we must stipulate sanity, if his actions are to be morally judged at all)—­then a law which binds punishment and reward to action in a necessary manner, and is known so to bind them, would “obtain prompt and absolute obedience.”  There are some “edicts, now styled God’s own nature’s,” “which to hear means to obey.”  All the laws relating to the preservation of life are of this character.  And, if the law—­“Would’st thou live again, be just”—­were in all ways as stringent as the other law—­

  “Would’st thou live now, regularly draw thy breath! 
  For, suspend the operation, straight law’s breach results in death”—­[B]

[Footnote B:  Ibid.]

then no one would disobey it, nor could.  “It is the liberty of doing evil that gives the doing good a grace.”  And that liberty would be taken away by complete assurance, that effects follow actions in the moral world with the necessity seen in the natural sphere.  Since, therefore, man is made to grow, and earth is the place wherein he is to pass probation and prove his powers, there must remain a certain doubt as to the issues of his actions; conviction must not be so strong as to carry with it man’s whole nature.  “The best I both see and praise, the worst I follow,” is the adage rife in man’s mouth regarding his moral conduct.  But, spite of his seeing and praising,

            “he disbelieves
  In the heart of him that edict which for truth his head receives."[A]

[Footnote A:  La Saisiaz.]