"Every human being is irresistibly
impelled to act to act precisely as he does act: in the eternity which preceded his birth, a chain of causes was generated which, operating under the name of
motives, makes it impossible that any thought of his mind, or any action of his life, should be otherwise than what it is.... The doctrine of
Necessity tends to introduce a great change into the established notions of
morality.... "
Percy Bysshe Shelley, in a note attached to his poem Queen Mab