NATURAL THEOLOGY. 151 



case", even in human arrangements. Each person's 

 place and precedency, in a public meeting, may 

 be determined by lot. Work and labour may be 

 allotted. Tasks and burdens may be allotted : 



Opeiumque laborem 



Partibr.3 aequabat justis, aut sorte trahebat. 



Military service and station may be allotted. The 

 distribution of provision may be made by lot, as it 

 is in a sailor's mess ; in some cases also, the dis- 

 tribution of favours may be made by lot.^ In all 

 these cases, it seems to be acknowledged, that 

 there are advantages in permitting events to 

 chance superior to those which would or could 

 arise from regulation. In all these cases also, 

 though events rise up in the way of chance, it is 

 by appointment that they do so. 



In other events, and such as are independent 

 of human will, the reasons for this preference of 

 uncertainty to rule appear to be still stronger. 

 For example : it seems to be expedient that the 

 period of human life should be uncertain. Did 

 mortality follow any fixed rule, it would produce 

 a security in those that were at a distance from it, 

 which would lead to the greatest disorders ; and a 

 horror in those who approached it, similar to that 

 which a condemned prisoner feels on the night 

 before his execution. But, that death be uncer- 

 tain, the young must sometimes die, as well as 

 the old. Also were deaths never sudden, they who 

 are in health would be too confident of life. The 

 strong and the active, who want most to be warned 



