to hate it and fear it, and I reply to those who urge me to take physic, that they may at least wait until I have recovered my health and my strength, and have more power to sustain the working and the hazards of their draught. I let Nature do her work, assuming that she is supplied with teeth and claws to defend herself from the assaults that are made upon her, and to maintain this contexture of which she dreads the dissolution. I fear lest in thus aiding her, when she is in close grapple, struggling with the disease, we aid her adversary instead, and burden her with new work.
Now I say that, not in medicine alone, but in many arts more certain, fortune plays a large part. The poetic impulses which carry away him who begets them, and snatch him out of himself — why shall we not ascribe them to his good luck, since he himself confesses that they surpass his ability and his powers, and recognises them as coming from elsewhere than himself, and as being in no wise under his control; just as orators say that they have not under their control those exceptional emotions and agitations which impel them beyond their purpose? It is the same in painting — that at times there escape from the painter’s hand strokes surpassing his conception and his knowledge, which draw forth his own admiration and astonish him. But fortune shows even more clearly the share that she has in all these works by the charms and beauties which are found therein, not only without the intention, but even without the knowledge of the workman. A competent reader often discovers in another’s writings other perfections than those which the author has consciously imparted to them,[1] and lends to them a richer meaning and aspect.
As for military undertakings, every one can see how large a part fortune has in them. Even in our councils and our deliberations, it is certain that there is an admixture of chance and good luck; for all that our wisdom can do does not amount to much; the more keen and more alert it is, the more weakness it detects in itself, and distrusts itself so much the more. I am of Sylla’s opinion,[2] and when I scru-
