St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-17
THE WORLD OF CHANCE. .

all religions have taught all men that
there is somewhere some sentient, on
nlscient power that directs and guides
the affairs, great and little. of the UNI
verse. For centuries Christianity has
taught and addressed its prayers to a
Creator who numbers the hairs on the
heads of each of us. and without whose
cognlzauce not even sparrow falls to
the ground. Science, patiently, tire.
iessly searching for fact, probing phe-
nomena, ever putting nature in the cru
chile to extract her secrets, refusing to
accept the dreams of men as answers to
her questions, persistently gathering
and coliating facts of cause and effect
That the law that controls may be spelled
out; science, thus equipped, tells men
that they and their affairs are the sub
JectS OF laws as certain and inflexible as
are any that govern the other processes
of nature.
And yet, despite the claims of religion
and the assertions of science. most men
aud women have belief, more or less
repressed, that their affairs are ordered
largely by chance, and that their fate
here is determined largely by what they
term their good or their bad luck. They
IND this belief reinforced by their own
experiences. They recall how this dis
aster was incurred, Or that one closely
avoided, by the merest chance. Why
Should the bullet strike my comrade
next me, and not me? Why, in the
street braWl, does it miss its meant aim
and strike an innocent passer-by on the
opposite side? Why should the switch
man keep the switch closed for the train
on which am, and negligently leave it
open to hurl over the embapkment the
train on which my brother is? Why
should A hit the rich mine, and 3 al
ways find nothing at the bottom of his
prospect hole? What brings about the
Juncture OF the passing man with the
stone falling from the edifice to crush
him?
HOWEILs, in his World of Chance"
makes this the study of the book. The
young authors book. in spite of judi
cious advertising, falls fat Oh the mar
ket. His publisher believes that the
fate OF book is determined by chances
which no man can calculate. All he can
do is to print it, boom it by all the de-
vices of his trade. tempt the public ap-
petite for it and toss it out into the great
flood of books which streams from the
presses of the world, to take its chlnces
OF catching or missing the favor of the
populace.
For months The Modern Romeo
drifts with the other flotsam of un-
noticed creations Of brains and press.
No reviewer notices it to either stab
with rldicule or anoiut with praise. at
last, one day the book reviewer of lead
ing paper gathers up some books at the
Office to take home for review. When
he gets home he finds that he picked up
1.-The Modern Romeo" instead of the
one he purposed taking. One of the
books is on hypnUtism, and interests the
reviewer. When he has finished the
rest. in mere idle curiosity he opens the
Romeo" and, by chance, at the page
where the crisis of the plot turns on a
hypnotic effect. He is interested, turns
back and reads the book, is charmed,
and turns I'D q three-cOlunu review of
the book. The author wakes up the
next day famous and successful.
This SEEMS to be case of pure luck.
What compelling force directed the re-
viewers hand, diSobedient to his will,
to the Modern Romeo" instead of the
book he wished to take? What was 1t
made him open it at the precise page
to catch his awakened attention? Was
it mere chance? Are we the mere pup
pets of circumstances directed by no
law, always just happening? Is it all
casualty and not cauSality? Is there
something more than chance that makes
one man shah of Persia and arether one
plain SHAW? Is cause and effect lin
tied to the material world, and are men
exempt? Or is law supreme and UNI
Versal, and is our bad luck only the
scapegoat of our Incidence, our heed
lessnesS or our inability to sense the
scheme which is an ordered whole in
stead of tumble of lnconerencies?
KANE, the tiIhe-iuellowed philosopher
OF the book, musing on it. says I'VE
might get back to faith by taking
wider sweep and seeing God in our per-
sonal disadvantages, finding Him not
only in cur luck but in our bad luck.
Chance may be a larger law, with an
orbit far transcending the range of the
little statutes by which fire always
burns and water always finds its level"
And the author of the chance favored
book. Illuminating on it all. is made by
HowELLs to conclude that 'justice rules
the universe. Nothing, then, that seemed
chance was really chance. 1t was the
operation of law SO large that we
caught glimpse of its vast orbit once
or twice in lifetime. 1t was Proyi-
dence." And to this conclusion we all
come who ponder long on the reason of
things and the experiences of our lives.
OUEEN WiT.HEI,NfINA