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It is Dot always easy to account for the success that appears habi- 

 tually to accompany the career of particular individuals. Where 

 great merit exists, the circumstance seems naturally to explain itself. 

 But good fortune is not necessarily or at all times the companion of 

 great qualities. It is in some respects capricious, and many persons 

 in ordinary life have thought that they had reason to put faith, as 

 Bonaparte did in war, in the influence of a friendly star. One of 

 the richest private men of the age is said to have disclaimed all right 

 on the score of abilities and skill, or even of careful management of 

 his aifairs, and to have imputed his wonderful prosperity to what he 

 modestly called luck. A very moderate degree of merit, and a 

 seeming indifference to opportunities for gathering riches within 

 easy reach, do not prevent the accidents of many a life from being 

 marked with a frequent attainment of wealth. It may happen, too, 

 though perhaps more rarely, that much positive desert, combined 

 with laborious and apparently well-directed exertions, will fail to 

 receive a just reward in what are regarded the gifts of fortune. 

 Each of these conditions must be looked upon as an exception to a 

 sound general rule. As such they are far from disproving its reality 

 or its soundness. They serve, indeed, while the departures from it 

 are only occasional, to confirm the existence and establish the truth 

 of a principle, worthy to be cherished in all the relations of life. 

 Otherwise they would be strange contradictions in practice of some 

 of the best lessons of philosophy. They are at variance with esta- 

 blished maxims of wisdom, with daily lessons of experience, with 

 doctrines of universal morality, and with the earnest and virtuous 

 promptings of conscious and enlightened duty. Could they be con- 

 sidered in any other light, they would go far to impeach the instruc- 

 tions which should never be lost sight of, that foresight and discre- 

 tion are commonly the companions of virtue, and that folly is often 

 the forerunner of crime. Cause and effect, are inherent in our 

 nature. Their immediate connection is not always to be seen. It 

 is nevertheless true that almost every event in the history of indi- 

 viduals or nations, although not easily to be traced to its sometimes 

 hidden origin, is the result of a possibly remote, but efficient cause. 

 Merit and demerit, and the fruits of them in conduct must have 

 their consequences. The safest lesson that philosophy can teach, is 

 that the fortunate are the wise. Contingencies exist in all human 

 affairs against which the utmost prudence cannot always guard. 

 Open hostility sometimes, and that of a secret and insidious kind 

 still more frequently, is entertained against the deserving. The 



