Chap. XX. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 285 



called chance^ or fortune. This he has done in the fecond book of his 

 Phyfics ; but, as he writes fhortly, and often obfcurely, 1 will endea- 

 vour to explain his dodrine to the Englifh reader, with fome additions 

 to it, which I think it is neceflary to make. 



And I will begin, as Ariftotle has done, with ftating what is com- 

 monly faid concerning chance or Jortune ; and, by examining what 

 is right, and what is wrong, in what is fo faid, we may, perhaps, 

 come to the truth. 



In the Jifjl place, it is commonly faid, that what happens by chance 

 or accident, or fortuitoufly, (for we ufe all thefe words as fynonimous,) 

 happens rarefy : And this is rightly faid ; for, whatever happens com- 

 monly, and in the ordinary courfe of things, is not a fortuitous event, 

 becaufe we forefee and expert it ; whereas, what happens by chance 

 or accident, is always unforefeen, and unexpected. 



But, becaufe fortuitous events are rare, we ought not from thence 

 to conclude that rare events are fortuitous ; for, if that were fo, then 

 earthquakes, inundations, eclipfes, would be fortuitous events : But 

 thefe were never accounted fortuitous, even in the ages of the greatefi: 

 ignorance, but were believed to be the immediate work of God. Of 

 eclipfes, we now know the caufe with fo great certainty, that we cal- 

 culate, to a minute, when they are to happen ; and, though we are 

 not fo fure of the caufes of earthquakes and inundations, nor, fuppofe 

 we were fure of the caules, do we know the operation of them with 

 fucli certainty, as to be able to f oretel thofe events ; yet the philofopher 

 knows, that they proceed from natural caufes, operating as regularly 

 as thofe which produce the moft common events. 



But, the moft common nfc, I believe, of the word chariceis, to denote 

 an event that is not produced by a certain and determinate caufc, orfuch 



an 



