XII 
LIFE AND CHANCE 
I 
HANCE, 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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