XIII 

 LIFE AND CHANCE 



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CHANCE, as we commonly use the word, plays 

 an important part in all our lives and in the 

 lives of all other creatures. According to a recent 

 writer it plays an important part in the present great 

 European war, or in Great Britain's relation to it. 

 "Chance," he says, "located nearly all the available 

 harbors on the English side of the Channel. Chance 

 made it necessary for sailing ships to hug the Eng- 

 lish coast and to utilize English harbors in case of 

 storm; chance provided winds and currents so vari- 

 able that large fleets seldom found conditions favor- 

 able for the crossing of the Channel, the result being 

 that only three of about fifty attempts to invade 

 England succeeded." Chance in this sense has been 

 one of the prime factors in all history and is a prime 

 factor in our individual lives. So much that we are 

 and do is contingent upon outward conditions over 

 which we have no control. Where the laws and 

 movements of inorganic nature come into play, our 

 power of choice is negatived. We apply the word 

 "chance " to these things, because they are not pur- 

 posive, they serve no special end, they are the result 

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