The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-07-08
Folly of Fataltsm.

It sounds almost like Jest, and vet IL
is a.grave and veritable fact, that there
is. no creed SO fatal to the holder as that
OF the fatalist. Nothing can be SO hurt
full to q mans welfare, or so destructive
of his energy and force Of character, as
the belief that he has no power over his
own destiny, and that do what he NAV
he cannot altar in the slightest degree
the ordained course Of events. No per-
son is so utterly weak and worthless as
he WHO'S content to fold his hands and
say with the Italian, g Che sara sara 3
eWhat will evil be. To believe that
There's 9 divinity that shapes our ends
Rough-hew them now we will"
And not only to believe it, but to con-
sistentiy. act up to that belief, would,
unless we are very much mistaken, soon
lead us to surmise that Destiny had in-
tended us to become the inmates Of q
work house. Fortunately there are few,
If any, in our country who persistentlv
regulate their conduct by such creed
as this, though there are many who are
fond Of trusting to Providence, and who.
like Mr.. MicaWber, are always waiting
for something to turn up. For such pot
sons nothing ever does turn up, and in
the end we generally find them grieying
bitterly over their ell luck, and com.
planning that their neighbors are more
fortunate than, they are. Possibly they
viii tell us that the stars under which
they We're born are to blame, or that BY
some mischance or other Providence has
not provided for them in the handsome
manner they could have wished. They
forget the apothegm Of the Latin poet,
.Appius: Fdber q,Nsq1e fortuns sua,d
Each man is the artifcer Of his own
fortune); or, to use the words Of Bacon:
"Ihe mold of a mans fortune is chiefly
in his own hands," Dame Providence
dees not build bridges or erect houses
we have never seen her blowing the
fields or manufacturing apparel, and the
sossip we hear about her leads US to sus.
pect that she is only fatalism passing
under different name. Like Penelope
with {. her web, she continually battles our
eager expectations by undoing at one
time the good she has done for us at
another. Since the days Of that ;nexor-
able trinity, Clotho, Lachesis, and Afro
pos, the Fates have borne many names
and have wandered through many lands,
but they are still the same ill-omened
daughters of Nox and Erebus. the off
spring of night and darkness, or ignor-
ance and superstition. Oracles. angury.
astrology, the belief in destiny and pre-, ,
destination, portents, providence, for
tune, and fortune-telling, inevitable ne
2cessity or extreme necessitarianism
.(such as Robert Owen believed in)-all
these are but different forms Of fatalism:
they are the various costumes that she
has duGing past ages been pleased to put
on. With the ancient Greeks, under
the name of MORA or Destiny, Fate was
held to be more powerful than the gods,
and stronger than Zeus himself. The
literature of the Latin race is colored to
Il very core by the fatalistic creed, and
the Oriental races of the present dav.
the Turk and the Persian, the Mussnl.
man and the Hindoo, still believe that.
ION two days it steads not to run from thy grave
The appointed and the unappointed day;
On the first neither balm nor physician can sar& q
MOI thee on the second the universe slay.n