The morning call., 1892-12-25
FATE IN HISTORY.
Things Which Tight Have Happened
but for TrifIing Events.

put Tor frifiiTg Events.
London Illustrated News
1t Is, or once was, favorite plan OF ex-
aminers to ask: What would have been
tho consequence II such-and-Such an event
had not occuTred?" Scope was thus given
TO the historical imagination, and a man
could show both knowledge and fancy. In
our own lives we know how much hangs on
trifies. You take one side of street and
miss fortune and an affection which might
have been yours had you taken the other
side. You neglect to answer letter. you
Dick up an old lady who has been run over
by cab-nay. you look up and see yonr
fate instead OF looking down and missing
her-and all your life is altered.
90 II Is. too, in the history Of nations.
Suppose the King had not halted at
Varennes; suppose James nose had not
bied at Salisbury; suppose somebody, whose
name forget, had done as he proposed to
DO at Queen Anne's death; suppose the
Modes had won at Marathon OF the Sara
Gems at Iours,or HasdruDal at the Metaurus;
suppose that Napoleon had not suffered
from indigestion at Waterloo or that
Grouchy had not misinterpreted his or
ders-and where Is history? Nay. take
case on which we can not dwell, and which
suggests reflections which every one can
make for himself. Suppose a certain Roman
Governor had been an honest man.
There IS kind of fanciful pleasure in an
swerlng these problems; but. on the whole,
would the turn OF a straw. which seemed To
be so moment0us, have made such differ
encep We know how our character shapes
our lives, and we doubt whether accident is
so potent after all. Say you meet the wrong
late. and marry unhappily, would you have
been lnckler with another fate? Say YOU
miss fortune by slight neglect, has not
your whole career been a series of slight
neglects? You take up a tract and are con-
yerted, or you have visitation. like Colonel
gardiner or Pascal; l am certain that
Colonel GARDENERS conversion had long been
ripenlng. One day or another the vision
would have come. whether he was waiting
Tor that particular lady or for another. III
not that tract. some other tract would have
produced Its results; you were maturing
Tor that psychological alteration.
III We apply this idea TO national instead
Oh Individual lie 1t may appear that the
accidents were not so very momentous Saw
that the French King had reached the from
u .s rant micux pour lui. but the revolu-
ion would have gone on. Say that Grouchy
nao come up." and that Napoleon had
been well. We and the united Continent
were not SO near the end OF our resources
as france was; we should still have beaten
the Corsican on another field. Besides.
Grouchy's blunder was not an accident. II
was part of habit OF missing chances
wnlch mad sprung up In the French army
ever since the defeats In the Peninsula.
themselves consequent on Napoleon's un-
III.
Persians had won at Marathon. Could thew
have held Greece. as they held the Ionians.
so that Greek civilization would have
expired2 In all probability that was
quite impossible for Persia. For once.
In spite OF oligarchs and jealousies.
Hellas would have been united In resistance
she might even have gained by the strug-
gle. Say that Carthage had supported
of Macedon.
They could not have held Italy; they
could not have reduced Rome to a village
ana imposed new civilization on the
world. Had Edward III been Edward /
bannockburn would have been lost, but YOU
could no more subdue Scotland than wa
can hold Afgbanistan. III Charlie, had
marched on London from Derby, il the
welsh squires had come In and If the
English Jacobites had been true-hearred.
SUI, In very few years, James and his
priests would have been sent packing again.
history would have gained q romantic pace'
but England would be- much what shs IL es
present The King would not have had
DETER chance than Louis XVIII aud Charles