DESTINY, FATE 43 



possibly escape being hit by it, even were you ten feet under- 

 ground." 



If we were curious to trace the growth of such a uni- 

 versal belief in fate and destiny in primitive times we have 

 the materials at our very doors to-day. For this great war 

 has stirred afresh the curiosity of the human mind in this 

 eternal problem. On the whole it has probably increased 

 men's belief in fate. In letters from the front such phrases 

 as these constantly occur. "My number is up." "If the 

 , shell has my name on it. " "I have been in so many tight 

 corners and yet survived that it looks like as though my fate 

 would pull me through." During a debate in a Scottish 

 hospital lately, the convalescent soldiers were asked to 

 suggest topics. They fixed on predestination and fore- 

 knowledge. 



Professor Macintosh agrees with others in declaring that 

 the ordinary attitude of the soldier to religion is fatalism — 

 "the well-known fatalism of the trenches." "Bealizing how 

 little any one at 'the real front' can do, through prayer or in 

 any other way, to* guarantee his immunity from death, he 

 finds comfort in the thought that the time and manner of 

 his death are settled beforehand. And so, with the thought, 

 'What's the use of worrying?' he learns to do his daily duty 

 with a fine scorn of the constant menace of death." 



In our own city, too, we may see the same process. Fate 

 has decreed that an amah, a house boy and a cook should win 

 a great stake. Chance failed most, but these few small wage 

 earners have become fabulously rich. I fancy there has 

 been much looking at bones, and the length of the lobe of 

 the ear and the method of its attachment to' the face at the- 

 lower end. 



This cursory review of the prevalence of the idea of Fate- 

 in Chinese literature shows many phases that are sombre, 

 but there is nothing in it to equal the profound pessimism of 

 life to be found in the poem of Omar, 



Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears 

 To-day of past Regrets and Future Fears : 



To-morrow ! — Why, To-morrow I may be 

 Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years. 



Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, 

 Before we too into the Dust descend ; 



Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie 

 Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End . 



Alike for those who for To-day prepare. 

 And those that after some To-morrow stare, 



A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries, 

 "Fools ! your Reward is neither Here nor There." 



