CHAP. XXV.
How far Fortune influences the Things of this World; and how far she may be resisted.
I know that several have thought, and stil think, that all sublunary events are governed either by Divine Providence or by chance, in such a manner that human prudence can effect nothing against events; so that it is quite unnecessary for us to trouble ourselves, either as to preventing or directing them.
The revolutions of which we have been and are still witnesses, seem to support this opinion, from which I have at times some difficulty to defend yself; particularly when I consider how far those events surpass all human conjecture: yet as we confessedly possess a free will, it must, I think, be allowed that chance does not so far govern the world as to leave no province for the exercise of human prudence. (Vide Appendix G.)
I would compare the blind power of chance to a rapid river, which, having just overflowed its banks, inundates the plain, uproots trees, and sweeps all before it in its destructive progress, without our being able to oppose any
