218 DARWINIAN1SM. 



wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yel favour 

 to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to tlwm 

 all. That is the true picture of the contingency of all 

 things. Nor is it confined to the world of man. Fish of 

 the sea and bird of the air, beast of the bush and herb of 

 the field all of them are alike exposed. Nay, contin- 

 gency is riot the lot of the animate alone, there is not one 

 particle of the inanimate that escapes. Comets may glow 

 aud meteors may stream ; but they glow and they stream 

 in contingency. The tides are minuted ; but they will 

 not be so minuted for ever, and meantime there is not a 

 tide that rises but rises in contingency. No wind that 

 blows, but blows in contingency. No sun that shines, 

 but shines in contingency. Nor is it otherwise with the 

 fountain that bubbles, or the stream that flows, or the 

 rain that falls. Fountain, stream, rain, are all at the 

 will of contingency. No, you say ; all is of necessity ; 

 and of necessity so that all will come again, all will but 

 repeat itself. There is such iron necessity in the very 

 heart of the atoms, which alone are, that an Earthquake of 

 Lisbon, a Vespers of Sicily, a Black Hole of Calcutta, an 

 Alexander, a Caesar, a Mahomet, a smoke of Trafalgar, a 

 cannonade of Sebastopol will all recur again. But no ; 

 that is not so: nothing that ever was will ever more 

 return. Not a day, an hour, a minute, that ever through- 

 out this great universe lived, can ever anew live the life 

 it lived, brief but most real. Time recrudesces never, nor 

 space, nor aught that is in either. Physical necessity ! 

 Yes ; but it is even because of this physical necessity 

 that all is physically contingent. Ay, that alone, contin- 

 gency alone, is the iron master to which we have all 

 to submit. Not one of us but is just waiting here 

 absolutely impotent before whatever contingency may 

 doom. Man ! boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou 

 knowest not what a day may bring forth. That from 



