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Essays and Miscellanies

CHAPTER XXIX
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OF FORTUNE.
Plato says, that it is an accidental cause and a casual consequence in things which proceed from the election and counsel of men.

Aristotle, that it is an accidental cause in those things done by an impulse for a certain end; and this cause is uncertain and unstable: there is a great deal of difference betwixt that which flows from chance and that which falls out by Fortune; for that which is fortuitous allows also chance, and belongs to things practical; but what is by chance cannot be also by Fortune, for it belongs to things without action: Fortune, moreover, pertains to rational beings, but chance to rational and irrational beings alike, and even to inanimate things.

Epicurus, that it is a cause not always consistent, but various as to persons, times, and manners.
Anaxagoras and the Stoics, that it is that cause which human reason cannot comprehend; for there are some things which proceed from necessity, some things from Fate, some from choice and free-will, some from Fortune, some from chance..


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