BELIEF IN LUCK

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 12 June 1923, Page 7

BELIEF IN LUCK

INHERENT IN HUMAN RACE. BORN IN THE DARK AGES. Alhough the sensible man or woman no longer credits the existence of ghosts or witches, or fears the power of the evil eye, yet the ancient belief in some mysterious circumstance, which we term ‘luck,” still prevails as the lest rampart of discarded superstitution (writes a contributor to the Melbourne Age). Belief in luck is an inherent characteristic of the human race. It had its birth away back in the dark ages, when human mentality did not permit of coherent thought or the reasoning analysis of cause and effect. And it will continue to exist through future ages as a ready-made excuse for the weak and incompetent to explain their own failures or the successes of others.

In everyday life we hear sueh expressions as “He is a lucky man,” “My luck is out,” and “My luck has changed.” So established is the belief in the existence of some fantastic power that operates to create good or ill-fortune, that men and women order their lives much as the old Romans did in accordance with ludicrous superstitution derived from trivial happenings. Even the most highly cultured minds are not free from this primitive belief. A statesman will see in the breaking of a hand-mirror the cause of his inability to prevent a world conflict. An able engineer will live in trepidation because he has thoughtlessly pandered to the god of ill-fortune by commencing some great work on a Friday. The existence of the luck fetish is* an indication of the imperfection of the* human mind, and it is, too, an evidence that mankind has as yet moved but a step from the primitive. “To the lucky all things are lucky,” is a pleasing enough doctrine. It enables us to find excuses for ourselves, and to suggest that when we fail disaster has come, not through any fault of our own, but through the existence of a mysterious power, the operation of which we cannot control Sallust held that “fortune follows the more unworthy.” That is a much more feasible explanation of events in our daily lives than Byron’s dictum “Luck’s all,” or than that of Publillius Syrus that “fortune'is of more account to a man than judgment.” The modern-day gambler will be filled with anticipations of huge gains just because he has happened to see a black cat or a Chinese, when on the way to the racecourse; another will attribute his heavy losses solely to the fact that on the particular day, for no specific known cause, his luck “just happened to be out.” That is exactly the same attitude of mind that prompted the establishment of the College or Augurs in the days of ancient Rome, when men ordered their existence in accordance with the omens of good or evil fortune indicated by the actions of chickens, or the manner of flight affected by birds. But—and here is a point which cannot be too strongly stressed—the office of augurs was filled by persons of high birth and distinguished merit. Is it not just possible that these men arrived at their conclusions as to the prospects of success or failure, not from purely trivial actions of birds, but from a close study of the circumstances operating towards the success or failure of that enterprise? Is it not feasible that brain power entered into their decisions than. consideration of the element of chance? Just as in the times when trial by ordeal was the recognised method of testing a person’s guilt or innocence the fortunate ones who came through the ordeal unscathed, went free, not because of any divine intervention in their favour, not because they had “luck,” but because they knew the secrets of the business, and were shrewd enough’ and wealthy enough to bribe their judges. When a man -wins a large sum of money at the races, is he, indeed, lucky? Ninetynine people out of every one hundred would unhesitatingly answer, “Certainly, he is.” But are there not other elements which enter into the business ? The so-called luck may have come through a close study of all the circumstances, through the central power of choosing and rejecting factors, or through the ability to recognise good advice and the courage to follow it. Even when a man does win money in that way, his socalled good luck is of no value if he has not the strength of his mind and the capacity to retain his gains and turn them to account. It frequently happens that the man who has had a sudden accession of wealth finds in the long run that he is worse off than before the “lucky” happening. The value of his good fortune hinges solely on his capacity to turn the circumstances to account. Jane Austen says, “Depend upon it, a lucky guess is never merely luck—there is some talent in it.” The thinking man or woman will recognise that that statement is literally true. The discovery of the law of gravity is credited to Newton’s luck in having guessed that when the celebrated apple fell to the ground it was drawn earthwards by some irresistible power. But thousands of other people had seen apples fall to the ground and had drawn no deductions from the circumstance. Newton’s conclusion was due largely to the sub-conscious reasoning of a highly cultivated mind, and his discovery was not merely chance or luck, but the result of long years of study and observation. Dr. John Brown, in his dissertation on “Happy Guessing,” quotes the case of a Scotch driver who, when starting down a steep hill with an acute turn at the foot, .found that his wheelers, two new horses, were utterly ignorant of backing. They bolted down the hill to the great alarm of the passengers. The driver made no attempt to pull up, but, gathering up the reins, lashed his team to lull gallop. Right in front at the turn was a stout gate to a field, and it was shut.' The driver urged his galloping team straight at the gate and through it they went, shivering the gate to pieces. Naturally the passengers, finding themselves unhurt, congratulated themselves on their luck. But there was no luck in the business. The driver’s success in averting a smash was solely due to his nimble brain, his acquired proficiency in handling horses, and his accurate judgment of their limitations. He knew that his horses were not wheelers, realised in a flash that to attempt to negotiate the turn would mean certain disaster, and he had the courage and the strength to adopt the alternative course of driving through the gate. In these days we often hear motorists proclaim their good luck in having escaped injury or death through accident. But here again it has invariably been no matter of luck. The accident has occurred through the incapacity or laziness of someone, and serious consequences have been averted through the skill of the driver or the proficiency of those who designed and built the car or constructed the roadway. We often hear the remark applied to a business man, “He’s a very lucky fellow.” The suggestion is that his success has been’ due entirely to good fortune. But of what use would his so-called luck have been had he not possessed the capacity, the courage and the power of divination which enabled him to take advantage of the opportunity when it arose ? Many appointments are accounted for solely on the score of luck, but invariably they are capable of explanation on other more rational grounds. The man who is elevated to a high post may not appear to possess the requisite qualifications but he may have assiduously sought it, may through an appreciation of the circumstances judged accurately the considerations which would operate on the minds of those who were making the appointment. The man who failed may not have had an appreciation of those considerations, and may not have cultivated the capacity to take advantage of the peculiar circumstances of the case. In the same way the disappointed writer whose books can find no market is always ready to attribute the success of the writer of “best sellers” to luck. No such explanation is permissible. The man who writes the popular novel cannot be said to be working under any beneficent divinity. In actuality be is a man who has had the' wit to recognise what the public wants, and the capacity to turn his knowledge to account. He may have spent years of study to attain that end; he may, in striving to gauge the public taste, have ex perienced. ..failure after failure, and his ultimate success is therefore duo not to any

lucky streak in his composition, but to hard work and brain capacity. The luck fetish is nothing more than the refuge of cowards and fools. Emerson says, “Shallow men believe in luck,” and the student of life is fain to agree with him. The success or failure of human enterprises depends not on the operations of a mysterious and wholly unreasonable force which plays fantastic tricks with the lives of men and women, but on the actual attributes and actions of the men and women themselves, and those with whom they associate. Capacity, perspicacity, courage—these three things, and the power to turn them to account, are the factors which count in this existence.