DESTINY, FATE 41 



A Comparison. 



Dryf esdale says : ' ' Now were the walls of the turret of 

 egg-shells, and the lake sheeted with ice, I am well 

 taught, and strong in belief, that man does nought of himself, 

 he is but the foam on the billow, which rises, bubbles, and 

 bursts, not by its own effort, but by the mightier impulse of 

 fate which urges him. Yet, Lady, if I may advise, amid this 

 zeal for the life of the Jezebel of Scotland, forget not what 

 is due to thine own honour, and keep the matter secret as 

 you may." 



"The Lady of Lochleven was not aware how far minds of 

 a certain gloomy and determined cast by nature, may be 

 warped by a keen sense of injustice, amalgamated with the 

 crude, wild, and indigested fanatical opinions which this man 

 had gathered among the crazy sectaries of Germany ; or how 

 far the doctrines of fatalism, which he had embraced so 

 decidedly, sear the human conscience, by representing our 

 actions as the result of inevitable necessity. And to her 

 remonstance Dryf esdale answered, "He that looks on death, 

 Lady, as that which he may not shun, and which has its own 

 fixed and certain hour, is ever prepared for it. He that is 

 hanged in May will eat no flaunes in mid-summer — What is 

 death? — it is but ceasing to live — And what is living? — a 

 weary return of light and darkness, sleeping and waking, 

 being hungered and eating. Your dead man needs neither 

 candle nor can, neither fire nor feather-bed; and the joiner's 

 chest serves him for an eternal frieze jerkin." 



Another Comparison. 



This Chinese theory of destiny might be compared, too, 

 with the profound belief Napoleon had in it. He speaks of 

 it often, he was thoroughly persuaded of its control. At one 

 -time you will remember he had the gorgeous dream of being 

 a great eastern potentate, whose splendours would surpass 

 anything ever seen before. But England stood in the way 

 and his great efforts resulted in nothing but the fabrics of a 

 dream. He bore his disappointments well saying it was 

 destiny. "Nature seems to have calculated that I should 

 endure great reverses. She has given me a mind of marble. 

 Thunder cannot rufiie it. The shaft merely glides along." 

 Even his most intimate friends could discern no indications 

 of discontent. He seemed to feel that it was not his 

 destiny to found an empire in the East, and, acquiescing 

 without a murmur, he turned his attention to other enter- 

 prises. 



