Year: 1878

The ancients believed that at the pG;ut
where mans rule and power over the
forces of the world ended, there destiny
began and if ship was wrecked at
sea, or if country was devastated by
an epidemic, as such catastrophes were
clearly not brought about by mans
wishes or desires, they thought that
they could only be caused by some mys-
terious superhuman power who meddled
with, and ruled over, human affairs.
We cannot certainly be surprised that
such should have been the views and
opinions of persons who were ignorant
of the fact that a storm or an epidemic
is but q natural effect resulting from
natural causes, and that its occurrence is
governed by laws as certain and invaTi-
able as that of gravitation. In country
where there were supposed to be gods
of the sea and gods of the woods, rulers
Vt the wind and deities of the river,
there manifestly was but little room in


which mans free will could assert itself


But nov, since we know that we have in


ruth only to contend with natural forces
and those, too, of a constant and uniform
character. we can by studying their laws
render them subservient to our wishes,


and make them become our ministers,
instead of allowing them to be our mas
ters. The electric current, which in the
form of lightning was once the fiery
sword of angry deity, has now become
the Willing messenger of man, and car
ries his commands to the uttermost parts
of the earth. Thus one of the most
marvellous and fearful instruments of
Destiny, as it appeared to the inhabitants
of Rome and Athens some twenty CEN
turies ago, has in these later days lost
much Of its terrible character: and to
the great disgust of Jupiter and the other
lords of Olympus, little Mr. Dillettante
at his scientific sesnces can give you as
much lightning as you wish. The fancy
and imagination are more powerful and
less subject to the dictates of reason, in
the night than they are in the daytime;
the land of darkness may be considered
as their proper and natural habitat and
like the bats, they are most busy when
the sun has left US. Ignorance is q land
of darkness, and when mortals had not
the remotest idea of what was the cause
or nature of an eclipse, and when they
knew "less than nothing" about cleo
tricity, it is hardly a matter to be
wondered at that, as knowledge had
omitted to furnish the universe for them
with facts and realities, they allowed
imagination to supply the deficiency
with the first fictions and fancies that
presented themselves. The world was
to them a tabula rasa, and they wrote
upon it whatever they thought it. Be-
sides these two causes of fatalism, name
", the existence of evil and the tran
scendant power and vastness of the uni
verse as compared with man, there is q
third to which we may here refer, and
that is the existence, or seeming exist
ence, in the world ofwhat we are pleased
to call chance" Strictly speaking,
there is no such thing as @chance," for
nothing takes place without there being
some cause Of its occurrence, although
in many cases that cause may, owing to
its remoteness or minuteness, be con-
cealed from our view. Nevertheless
whenever anbevent happens Of the csuse
Of which they are entirely ignorant,
men are wont to assume that it has
some to pass without being caused at all,
or, as they term it, by "ehance."