He made a lively impression upon Froude, who learnt from him that natural phenomena were due to natural causes, at the same time that he acquired from Spinoza a disbelief in the freedom of the will.
When Dr.Johnson said, "Sir, we know that the will is free, and there's an end on't," he did not understand the question.

We all know that the will is free to act.

But is man free to will?
If everything about a man were within our cognisance, we could predict his conduct in given circumstances as certainly as a chemist can foretell the effect of mixing an acid with an alkali.

I have no intention of expressing any opinion of my own upon this subject.

The important thing is that Froude became in the philosophic sense a Determinist, and his conviction that Calvin was in that respect the best philosopher among theologians strengthened his attachment to the Protestant cause.
Protestantism apart, however, Froude's position as a clergyman had become intolerable.