NATURAL THEOLOGY. 149 



and with which, they were in fact begun and per- 

 formed, the meeting could not be avoided. There 

 was not, therefore, the less necessity in it for its 

 being by chance. Again, the rencounter might 

 be most unfortunate, though the errand, upon 

 which each party set out upon his journey, were 

 the most innocent or the most laudable. The b; 

 effect maybe unfavourable, without impeachmen 

 of the proper purpose, for the sake of which the 

 train, from the operation of which these conse- 

 quences ensued, was put in motion. Although no 

 cause act without a good purpose, accidental con- 

 sequences, like these, may be either good or bad. 

 11. The appearance of chance will always bear 

 a proportion to the ignorance of the observer. 

 The cast of a die as regularly follows the laws of 

 motion, as the going of a watch ; yet, because we 

 can trace the operation of those laws through the 

 works and movements of the watch, and canno 

 trace them in the shaking or throwing of the die 

 (though the laws be the same, and prevail equalh 

 in both cases,) we call the turning up of the num 

 ber of the die, chance, the pointing of the index 

 of the watch, machinery, order, or by some name 

 which excludes chance. It is the same in those 

 events which depend upon the will of a free and 

 rational agents The verdict of a jury, the sen- 

 tence of a judge, the resolution of an assembly, 

 the issue of a contested election, will have more 

 or less the appearance of chance, might be more 

 or less the subject of a wager, according as we 

 14* 



