COINCIDENCES, LUCK, CHANCE 



who were so carefully read for this Dictionary, has used 

 them ; so that whoever wrote the Dramas was apparently 

 and quite unconsciously in love with that form of verb. 



Now, in the whole of Lord Bacon's printisd works 

 there are but 2 " verbs in out ; " one being " outshot," a 

 street word in those days when most men were archers. 



Are totals of 54 to 2 *' verbs in out " enough grouped 

 cases for to found a coincidence faith upon, that the two 

 sets of writings, with the hitherto unknown marked differ- 

 ence between them, cannot be by the same author, Bacon ? 

 Single coincidences have been known to make a strong 

 impression on some types of people. May I quote John E. 

 Purdon, A.B., M.D. (''mind," Dec. 1900, pgs. 163-4), 

 who says : 



•' We are geueratly accustomed to consider the fall of well 

 shuffled cards as little different in character from that of coins thrown 

 up at random, either singly and successively, or simultaneously in 

 large numbers. In fact, we incline to consider the fall of cards, as 

 regards dealing and drawing, as altogether a matter of "chance." 

 There is no doubt that iu a million deals the tendency to uniformity 

 would be strongly manifest, and the established laws of probability 

 would assert themselves. But the essence of the peculiar is that it is 

 the particular, and that it must be studied separately, not according 

 to statistical methods." 



After quoting what seems to me, as a whist player, 

 only an ordinary whist experience, he goes on to say : 



'* I would not feel justified in calling attention to this case if I 

 had not had some special experiences that support me in laying 

 stress on particular occurrences happening to myself, as when I saw 

 the remarkable fact of the turning up of the same three cards to me, 

 after a dispute among some young officers (in which I was in the 

 right), during which I threw down the cards indignantly, and called 

 for a re-deal, saying, ' I^et the cards settle it themselves.' The 

 game was * Spoiled Five,' in which the five and knave of trumps, 

 and the ace of hearts, played in any order, must win. I held these 

 cards, but some stupid objection being made to my laying them 

 down on the table (done by me), on the ground that a gentleman 

 would not play out the hand on a certainty, the above extraordinary 

 event (of the same three cards coming to me) took place. It was a 



