The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-27
THE MORNING NEWS: MONDAY. AUGUST 81. 1888.

there be any virtue in this tantalizing tails
man it is very like the philosophers stone,
and requires a considerable amount of
delving and diving to secure.
THE sUPERsrIuoUs BARD.
Shakespeare gives evidence that he was
not free from this particular failing. In
the Merry Wives of Windsor he makes
that genial and obese old rogue "Falstatf, 1"
say to Dame Quickly GOOD luck lies in
odd numbers. They say there is a divin-
ity in odd numbers-either in nativity,
chance or deathn This idea is, of course,
founded on the Pythagorean system. IAN
nature is a harmony; man is full chord,
and ali beyond is deity. so that nine represents
deity" And thus, a major chord consists
of fundamental or tonic, its maj third,
and its just fifth. Seven notes complete the
octave, and nine is deity. Tho odd numbers
being the primary notes of nature, it is
easy to see how they came to be considered
the great or lucky numbers, but then the
luck belongs exclusively to the numbers and
not to the application thereof, as is tee
popular impression.
But to enter into or properly explain the
positions and qualities of odd numbers
would paralyze the great Euclid himself.
So, to return to our luck. IL there be such
an uncanny thing, how is it that never
since the creation has one man ever been
known to credit his success in life to luck2
His downfall, yes, to bad luck his rise and
progress to luck, good, bad. or Indifferent
Never. II anyone had the temerity to sug-
gest such thing the notion would be
secuted as not only preposterous but i'm
pious. The answer would be something
like this: my success, sir, which you vul-
carly attribute to luck, has been achieved
by sheer hard word and determination; ana
what have earned deserve" And in most
cases it would be right.
CYNICAL DEFINITION.
Certainly there are at times fortuitous
circumstances that make man successful,
whether he viii or not but then such is not
luck, it is pure accident And as we are all
liable to meet with disagreeable accidents,
SO are we all likely to meet with agreeable
ones. Only we never own it, surprising we
think SO. We go on declaring that ''it is
better to be born lucky than rich" and
yet we are quite incapable of explaining
what we exactly mean. In the commercial
sense-and it is only in the commercial
sense that we think upon the subjec5-if we
are rich, we don't want luck, and if we are
lucky we are rich. Lord Beaconsfield says
in 'Venetia," Luck is he who has neither
creditors nor offspring, and who owes
neither money nor affection-after all the
most difficult to pay of the two" This is
so cynically true thnt not soul believes it.
Faith in the charm of the horseshoe is
held sacred to this day, in town and coun-
try, by ignorant persons; but we do not
imagine that they nail it up over the door
as protection against witches, as was ouce
the custom. 1t is supposed to rather bring
good luck than to avert any evil. Many,
Otherwise Sane, individuals will stoop to
pick up shoe in the street, and others
would rather deliver up all their goods and
chattels than walk under ladder. There
is more common sense in this latter idiosyn-
cracy than may appear at first sight. One
does not run so great a risk of receiving a
paint pot or a brick, that may be ON the
journey from the roof to the pavement,
outside the range of the ladder as immedi-
ately under it. This is about the only super
stition that is worth preserving.
Generally speaking logical people discard
the conceit of anything coming to pass
through mere luck" though numbers on
the surface profess unshakable belief
therein. AS rule, those who complain
plain about anything-those who expect
fortunes to drop into their laps without any
exerti0n on their part to o. tain them. Poo
pie are frequently heard to lament they
are down on their luck, and then they alb
solutely do sit down on their luck and
stay there. Most things come to the man
who works, but very few to the man who
calmly sits down and waits. Nothing uD-
sets superstition so much as common sense.
There is no such qualify as luck, except it
be very unknown quantity. People have
bad luck when they can not take tue rough
with the smooth when they wear out the
smooth and forget that it ever existed.
Good luck means good intentions well car
ried out; and, after all, the only lucky man
in the world is he who is lucky enough to
get what ha HeGarvaS