CHANCE

Evening Star, Issue 19268, 5 June 1926, Page 2

CHANCE

IS THERE SUCH A THING 7 Chance, some say, is the factor that has made men—or at least some men—groat, famous, or rich. And yet others maintain that there is no such tiring, writes Lady Norah Bentinck, in the ‘ Daily Mail.’ In our views on this subject we all resolve ourselves somehow into two great divisions. Some view life as all chance; some as ail destiny. “ Everything is done by immutable laws, and our destiny is already _ recorded,” thinks Voltaire. But Schiller says: “ There is no such thing ns chance; and what seems to us merest accident, springs from the deepest source of destiny.”

Some thinkers hold that to admit that there is such a thing as chance would bo to attempt to establish a power independent of God. In ‘ The Story of My Heart,’ Richard Jeffries, the famous naturalist, reveals himself as the great apostle of chance as against a destiny controlled by a Supremo Wisdom, and he illustrate his view by this story: “A man bathed in a pool. A crocodile seized and lacerated his leg. If anyone maintains that an intelligence directed that cruelty, I can only answer that his mind is under an illusion.” The world, to be sure, is littered with chances—good and had. Chance is always . dancing about us, but to make the best use of their chances is a, gift not given to nil. It might be chance that the general is killed or the leading lady indisposed; but is it fair to say that the understudy is lucky if be or she steps into the breach and scores a success made possible only by ability and long years of careful preparation ? ‘‘lf only I bad had his chance,” wo often hear men say; and in such rcpinings they find a fertile source of discontent. But when men ascribe some event to chance they merely mean by that they did not happen to foresee it: and they cannot fairly complain if somebody else has had more prescience and I*; ted, himself to into advantage of the opportunity.