that decrees; lot, in German loos, signifies a ticket, die, or any other thing by which the casual distribution of things is determined; and in an extended sense, it expresses the portion thus assigned by chance; doom, in Saxon dome, Danish döm, most probably like the word deem, comes from the Hebrew to judge, signifying the thing judged, spoken, or decreed.

All these terms are employed with regard to human events which are not under one's control: among the heathens destiny and fate were considered as deities, who each in his way could direct human affairs, and were both superior even to Jupiter himself: the Destinies, or Parcæ as they were termed, presided only over life and death; but fate was employed in ruling the general affairs of men. Since revelation has instructed mankind in the nature and attributes of the true God, these blind powers are now not acknowledged to exist in the over-ruling providence of an allwise and an all-good Being; the terms destiny and fate therefore have now only a relative sense, as to what happens without the will or control of the individual who is the subject of it.

Destiny is used in regard to one's station and walk in life; fate in regard to what one suffers; lot in regard to what one gets or possesses; and doom is that portion of one's destiny or fate which depends upon the will of another: destiny is marked out; fate is fixed; a lot is assigned; a doom is passed.

It was the destiny of Julius Caesar to act a great part in the world, and to establish a new form of government at Rome; it was his fate at last to die by the hands of assassins, the chief of whom had been his avowed friends; had he been contented with a humbler lot than that of an empire, he might have enjoyed honors, riches, and a long life; his doom was sealed by the last step which he took in making himself emperor: it is not permitted for us to inquire into our future destiny; it is our duty to submit to our fate, to be contented with our lot, and prepared for our doom a parent may have great influence over the destiny of his child, by the education he gives to him, or the principles he instils into his mind;

If death be your design-at least, said she, Take us along to share your destiny. DRYden. There are many who owe their unhappy fate entirely to the want of early habits of piety;

The gods these armies and this force employ, The hostile gods conspire the fate of Troy. POPE. Riches or poverty may be assigned to us as our lot, but the former will not ensure us happiness, nor the latter prevent us from being happy if we have a contented temper;

To labor is the lot of man below,

And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe. POPE. Criminals must await the doom of an earthly judge; but all men, as sinners, must meet the doom which is prepared for them at the awful day of judgement;

Oh! grant me, gods! ere Hector meets his doom,
All I can ask of Heav'n, an early tomb. POPE.

It is the destiny of some men to be always changing their plan of life; it is but too frequently the fate of authors to labor for the benefit of mankind, and to reap nothing for themselves but poverty and neglect; it is the lot but of very few, to enjoy what they themselves consider a competency.

DESTINY, DESTINATION.

Both destiny and destination are used for the thing destined; but the former is said in relation to a man's important concerns, the latter only of particular circumstances; in which sense it may likewise be employed for the act of destining.

Destiny is the point or line marked out in the walk of life; destination is the place fixed upon in particular as every man has his peculiar destiny, so every traveller has his particular destination. Destiny is altogether set above human control; no man can determine, though he may influence, the destiny of another: destination is, however, the specific act of an individual, either for himself or another: we leave the destiny of a man to develope itself; but we may inquire about his own destination, or that of his children it is a consoling reflection that the destinies of short-sighted mortals, like ourselves, are in the hands of One who both can and will overrule them to our advantage if we place full reliance in Him: At the pit of Acheron

Meet one i' th' morning; thither he
Will come to know his destiny. SHAKSPEARE.

In the destination of children for their several professions or callings, it is of importance to consult their particular turn of mind, as well as inclination; Moore's original destination appears to have been for trade.' JOHNSON.

TO SENTENCE, DOOM, CONDEMN.

To sentence, or pass sentence, is to give a final opinion or decision which is to influence the fate of an object; condemn, from damnum a loss, is to pass such a sentence as shall be to the hurt of an object; doom, which is a variation from damnum, has the same meaning.

Sentence is the generic, the two others specific terms. Sentence and condemn are used in the juridical as well as the moral sense; doom is employed in the moral sense only. In the juridical sense, sentence is indefinite; condemn is definite a criminal may be sentenced to a mild or severe punishment; he is always condemned to that which is severe; he is sentenced to imprisonment, or transportation, or death; he is condemned to the galleys, to transportation for life, or to death.

In the moral application they are in like manner distinguished. To sentence is a softer term than to condemn, and this is less than to doom. Sentence applies to inanimate objects; condemn and doom only

X

to persons or that which is personal. An author is sentenced by the decision of the public to suffer neglect; a thing is sentenced to be thrown away which is esteemed as worthless; we may be condemned to hear the prating of a loquacious person; we may be doomed to spend our lives in penury and wretchedness. Sentence, particularly when employed as a noun, may even be favorable to the interests of a person; condemn is always prejudicial, either to his interest, his comfort, or his reputation; doom is always destructive of his happiness, it is that which always runs most counter to the wishes of an individual. It is of importance for an author, that a critic should pronounce a favorable sentence on his works; Let him set out some of Luther's works, that by them we may pass sentence upon his doctrines.' ATTERBURY. But, in the signification of a sentence passed by a judge, it is, when absolutely taken, always in a bad sense; At the end of the tenth book the poet joins this beautiful circumstance, that they offered up their penitential prayers on the very place where their judge appeared to them when he pronounced their sentence.' ADDISON. Immoral writers are justly condemned to oblivion or perpetual infamy;Liberty (Thomson's Liberty) called in vain upon her votaries to read her praises, her praises were condemned to harbour spiders and gather dust.' JOHNSON. Some of the best writers have been doomed to experience neglect in their lifetime; Even the abridger, compiler, and translator, though their labours cannot be ranked with those of the diurnal biographer, yet must not be rashly doomed to annihilation." JOHNSON.

A sentence and condemnation is always the act of some person or conscious agent: doom is sometimes the fruit of circumstances. Tarquin the Proud was sentenced by the Roman people to be banished from Rome; Regulus was condemned to the most cruel death by the Carthaginians; many writers have been doomed to pass their lives in obscurity and want, whose works have acquired for them lasting honors after their death.

CHANCE, FORTUNE, FATE.

Chance, probably contracted from the Latin cadens falling, is here considered as the cause of what falls out; fortune, in French fortune, Latin fortuna, from fors chance, in Hebrew ; fate signifies the same as in the preceding article. These terms have served at all times as cloaks for human ignorance, and before mankind were favoured by the light of Divine Revelation, they had an imaginary importance which has now happily vanished.

Believers in Divine Providence no longer conceive the events of the world as left to themselves, or as under the control of any unintelligent or unconscious agent, but ascribe the whole to an overruling mind, which, though invisible to the bodily eye, is clearly to be traced by the intellectual eye, wherever we turn ourselves. In conformity however to the preconceived notions attached to these words, we now employ them

6

But

in regard to the agency of secondary causes. how far a Christian may use them without disparagement to the majesty of the Divine Being, it is not so much my business to inquire, as to define their ordinary acceptation; Some there are who utterly proscribe the name of chance as a word of impious and profane signification: and indeed if it be taken by us in that sense in which it was used by the heathens, so as to make any thing casual in respect of God himself, their exception ought to be admitted. But to say a thing is a chance or casualty as it relates to second causes, is not profaneness, but a great truth.' SOUTH.

In this ordinary sense chance is the generic, fortune and fate are specific terms: chance applies to all things personal or otherwise; fortune and fate are mostly said of that which is personal.

Chance neither forms orders or designs: neither knowledge or intention is attributed to it; its events are uncertain and variable;

Chance aids their daring with unhop'd success.

DRYDEN.

Fortune forms plans and designs, but without choice; we attribute to it an intention without discernment; it is said to be blind; We should learn that none but

intellectual possessions are what we can properly call our own. All things from without are but borrowed. What fortune gives us is not ours, and whatever she gives she can take away.' STEELE. Fate forms plans and chains of causes; intention, knowledge, and power are attributed to it; its views are fixed, its results decisive;

Since fate divides then, since I must lose thee, For pity's sake, for love's, oh! suffer me, Thus languishing, thus dying, to approach thee; And sigh my last adieu upon thy bosom. TRAPP. A person goes as chance directs him when he has no express object to determine his choice one way or other; his fortune favours him, if without any expectation he gets the thing he wishes; his fate wills it, if he reaches the desired point contrary to what he intended.

Men's success in their undertakings depends oftener on chance than on their ability; we are ever ready to ascribe to ourselves what we owe to our good fortune; it is the fate of some men to fail in every thing they

undertake.

When speaking of trivial matters, this language is unquestionably innocent, and any objection to their use must spring from an over scrupulous conscience.

If I suffer my horse to direct me in the road I take to London, I may fairly attribute it to chance if I take the right instead of the left; if I meet with an agreeable companion by the way I shall not hesitate to call it my good fortune that led me to take one road in preference to another; if in spite of any previous intention to the contrary, I should be led to take the same road repeatedly, and as often to meet with an agreeable companion, I shall immediately say that it is my fate to meet with an agreeable companion whenever I go to London.

CHANCE, PROBABILITY.

Chance signifies the same as in the preceding article; probability, in French probabilité, Latin probabilitas, from probabilis and probo to prove, signifies the quality of being able to be proved or made good. These terms are both employed in forming an estimate of future events; but the chance is either for or against, the probability is always for a thing. Chance is but a degree of probability; there may in this latter case be a chance where there is no probability. A chance affords a possibility; many chances are requisite to constitute a probability.

What has been once may, under similar circumstances, be again; for that there is a chance; what has fallen to one man may fall to another; so far he has a chance in his favor; but in all the chances of life there will be no probability of success, where a man does not unite industry with integrity:

Thus equal deaths are dealt with equal chance,
By turns they quit their ground, by turns advance.

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DRYDEN.

Chance cannot be calculated upon; it is apt to produce disappoinment: probability justifies hope; it is sanctioned by experience; "There never appear," says Swift, more than five or six men of genius in an age, but if they were united the world could not stand before them." It is happy therefore for mankind that of this union there is no probability.' JOHNSON.

CHANCE, HAZARD.

Chance signifies the same as in the preceding article; hazard comes from the oriental xar and tzar, signifying any thing bearing an impression, particularly the dice used in chance games, which is called by the Italians zara, and by the Spaniards azar.

Both these terms are employed to mark the course of future events, which is not discernible by the human eye. With the Deity there is neither chance nor hazard; his plans are the result of omniscience : but the designs and actions of men are all dependant on chance or hazard. Chance may be favorable or unfavorable, more commonly the former; hazard is always unfavorable; it is properly a species of chance. There is a chance either of gaining or losing there is a hazard of losing. In most speculations the chance of succeeding scarcely outweighs the hazard of losing;

All these terms denote actions performed under an uncertainty of the event; but hazard bespeaks a want of design and choice on the part of the agent; to risk implies a choice of alternatives; to venture, a calculation and balance of probabilities: one hazards and hope of a good. He who hazards an opinion or an risks under the fear of an evil; one ventures with the assertion does it from presumptuous feelings and upon slight grounds; chances are rather against him than for him that it may prove erroneous;

They list with women each degenerate name
Who dares not hazard life for future fame.

DRYDEN.

He

He who risks a battle does it often from necessity; he who chooses the least of two evils, although the event is dubious, yet he fears less from a failure than from inaction; If the adventurer risques honour, he risques more than the knight.' HAWKSWORTH. who ventures on a mercantile speculation does it from a love of gain; he flatters himself with a favorable event, and acquires boldness from the prospect; • Socrates, in his discourse before his death, says, he did not know whether his body shall (would) remain after death, but he thought so, and had such hopes of it that he was very willing to venture his life upon these hopes.' TILLOTSON.

There are but very few circumstances to justify us in hazarding; there may be several occasions which render it necessary to risk, and very many cases in which it may be advantageous to venture.

DANGER, PERIL, HAZARD.

Danger, in French danger, comes from the Latin damnum a loss or damage, signifying the chance of a signifies either to go over, or to perish, and periculoss; peril, in French peril, comes from pereo, which designating a critical situation, a rude trial, which lum, which signifies literally that which is undergone; may terminate in one's ruin; hazard signifies the same as in the preceding article.

The idea of chance or uncertainty is common to all these terms; but the two former may sometimes be foreseen and calculated upon; the latter is purely contingent. Danger and peril are applied to a positive evil; hazard may simply respect the loss of a good; risks are voluntarily run from the hope of good: there may be many dangers included in a hazard; and there cannot be a hazard without some danger.

A general hazards a battle, in order to disengage himself from a difficulty; he may by this step involve himself in imminent danger of losing his honor or his life; but it is likewise possible that by his superior skill he may set both out of all danger: we are hourly exposed to dangers which no human foresight can

guard against, and are frequently induced to engage in enterprises at the hazard of our lives, and of all that we hold dear;

РОРЕ.

One was their care, and their delight was one; One common hazard in the war they shared. DRYDEN. Dangers are far and near, ordinary and extraordinary; they meet us if we do not go in search of them; Proud of the favors mighty Jove has shown, On certain dangers we too rashly run. Perils are always distant and extraordinary; we must go out of our course to expose ourselves to them: in the quiet walk of life as in the most busy and tumultuous, it is the lot of man to be surrounded by danger; he has nothing which he is not in danger of losing; and knows of nothing which he is not in danger of suffering: the mariner and the traveller who go in search of unknown countries put themselves in the way of undergoing perils both by sea and land;

From that dire deluge through the watery waste, Such length of years, such various perils past, At last escaped, to Latium we repair. DRYDEN. The same distinction exists between the epithets that are derived from these terms.

It is dangerous for a youth to act without the advice of his friends; it is perilous for a traveller to explore the wilds of Africa: it is hazardous for a merchant to speculate in time of war: experiments in matters of policy or government are always danger

ous;

Hear this and tremble! all who would be great,
Yet know not what attends that dang'rous, wretched
state. JENYNS.

A journey through deserts that are infested with beasts
of prey
is perilous;

The grisly boar is singled from his herd,

A match for Hercules; round him they fly
In circles wide, and each in passing sends
His feather'd death into his brawny sides;
But perilous th' attempt. SOMERVILLE.

A military expedition conducted with inadequate means is hazardous; The previous steps being taken, and the time fixed for this hazardous attempt, Admiral Holmes moved with his squadron farther up the river about three leagues above the place appointed for the disembarkation, that he might deceive the enemy.'

SMOLLET.

TO HAPPEN, CHANCE.

To happen, that is, to fall out by a hap, is to chance (v. Chance, fortune) as the genus to the species; whatever chances happens, but not vice versa. Happen respects all events without including any collateral idea; chance comprehends, likewise, the idea of the cause and order of events: whatever comes to pass happens, whether regularly in the course of things, or particularly, and out of the order;

whatever chances happens altogether without concert, intention, and often without relation to any other thing. Accidents happen daily which no human foresight could prevent; the newspapers contain an account of all that happens in the course of the day or week;

With equal mind what happens let us bear,
Nor joy, nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
DRYDEN.

Listeners and busy bodies are ready to catch every word that chances to fall in their hearing; An idiot chancing to live within the sound of a clock, always amused himself with counting the hour of the day whenever the clock struck; but the clock being spoiled by accident, the idiot continued to count the hour without the help of it.' ADDISON.

ACCIDENT, CHANCE.

Accident, in French accident, Latin accidens, participle of accido to happen, compounded of ac or ad and cado to fall, signifies the thing falling out; chance (v. Chance, fortune).

Accident is said of things that have been; chance of things that are to be. That is an accident which is done without intention: that is a chance which cannot be brought about by the use of means. It is

an accident when a house falls: it is a chance when and how it may fall; That little accident of Alexander's taking a fancy to bathe himself caused the interruption of his march; and that interruption gave occasion to that great victory that founded the third monarchy of the world.' SOUTH. 'Surely there could not be a greater chance than that which brought to light the Powder-Treason.' SOUTH.

Accidents cannot be prevented: chances cannot be calculated upon. Accidents may sometimes be remedied; chances can never be controlled: accidents give rise to sorrow, they mostly occasion mischief; chances give rise to hope; they often produce disappointment; it is wise to dwell upon neither.

ACCIDENT, CONTINGENCY, CASUALTY.

Accident signifies the same as in the preceding contingens, participle of contingo, compounded of article; contingency, in French contingence, Latin con and tango to touch one another, signifies the falling out or happening together; or the thing that happens in conjunction with another; casualty, in French casualté, from the Latin casualis and cado to fall or happen, signifies what happens in the course of

events.

These words imply whatever takes place independently of our intentions. Accidents express more than contingencies; the former comprehend events with their causes and consequences; the latter respect collateral actions, or circumstances appended to events; casualties have regard simply to circumstances. Acci

dents are frequently occasioned by carelessness, and contingencies by trivial mistakes; but casualties are altogether independent of ourselves.

The overturning a carriage is an accident; our situation in a carriage, at the time, is a contingency, which may occasion us to be more or less hurt; the passing of any one at the time is a casualty. We are all exposed to the most calamitous accidents; This natural impatience to look into futurity, and to know what accidents may happen to us hereafter, has given birth to many ridiculous arts and inventions.' ADDISON. The happiness or misery of every man depends upon a thousand contingencies; Nothing less than infinite wisdom can have an absolute command over fortune;

the highest degree of it which man can possess is by no means equal to fortuitous events, and to such contingencies as may rise in the prosecution of our affairs." ADDISON. The best concerted scheme may be thwarted by casualties, which no human foresight can prevent; Men are exposed to more casualties than women, as battles, sea-voyages, with several dangerous trades and professions. ADDISON.

ACCIDENTAL, INCIDENTAL, CASUAL, CONTINGENT.

Accidental belonging to or after the manner of an accident (v. Accident): incidental, from incident, in Latin incidens and incido or in and cado to fall

upon, signifies belonging to a thing by chance; casual

after the manner of a chance or casualty; and contingent after the manner of a contingency.

Accidental is opposed to what is designed or planned, incidental to what is premeditated, casual to what is constant and regular, contingent to what is definite and fixed. A meeting may be accidental, an expression incidental, a look, expression, &c. casual, an expense or circumstance contingent. We do not expect what is accidental; we do not suspect or guard against what is incidental; we do not heed what is casual; we are not prepared for what is contingent. Many of the most fortunate and important occurrences in our lives are accidental; many remarks, seemingly incidental, do in reality conceal a settled intent, "This book fell accidentally into the hands of one who had never seen it before.' ADDISON. The distempers of the mind may be figuratively classed under the several characters of those maladies which are incidental to the body.' CUMBERLAND. A casual remark in the course of conversation will sometimes make a stronger impression on the minds of children than the most eloquent and impressive discourse or repeated counsel; Savage lodged as much by accident and passed the night sometimes in mean houses, which are set open at night to any casual wanderers.' JOHNSON. In the prosecution of any plan we ought to be prepared for the numerous contingencies which we may meet with to interfere with our arrangements; see how a contingent event baffles man's knowledge and evades his power.' SOUTH.

We

EVENT, INCIDENT, ADVENTURE,
OCCURRENCE.

Event, in Latin eventus, participle of evenio to incident, in Latin incidens, from incido, signifies that come out, signifies that which falls out or turns up; which falls in or forms a collateral part of any thing (v. Accidental); adventure, from the Latin advenio to come to, signifies what comes to or befalls one; which runs or comes in the way. occurrence, from the Latin occurro, signifies that

These terms are expressive of what passes in the world, which is the sole signification of the term event; whilst to that of the other terms are annexed some acces

sary ideas: an incident is a personal event; an accident an unpleasant event; an adventure an extraordinary event; an occurrence an ordinary or domestic event: event in its ordinary and limited acceptation excludes the idea of chance; accident excludes that of design; incident, adventure, and occurrence, are applicable in both cases.

Events affect nations and communities as well as individuals; incidents and adventures affect particular individuals; accidents and occurrences affect persons or things particularly or generally, individually or collectively the making of peace, the loss of a battle, or the death of a prince, are national events; a marriage or a death are domestic events; These events, the permission of which seems to accuse his goodness now, may in the consummation of things both magnify forming a new acquaintance and the revival of an old his goodness and exalt his wisdom.' ADDISON. one are incidents that have an interest for the parties concerned; I have laid before you only small incidents seemingly frivolous, but they are principally evils of this nature which make marriages unhappy.' STEELE. An escape from shipwreck, an encounter with wild beasts or savages, are adventures which individuals are pleased to relate, and others to hear;

For I must love, and am resolv'd to try
My fate, or failing in the adventure, die.

DRYDEN.

The

A fire, the fall of a house, the breaking of a limb, are accidents or occurrences; a robbery or the death of individuals are properly occurrences which afford subjects for a newspaper, and excite an interest in the reader; I think there is somewhere in Montaigne mention made of a family book, wherein all the occurrences that happened from one generation of that house to an other were recorded.' STEEle.

Event, when used for individuals, is always of greater importance than an incident. The settlement of a young person in life, the adoption of an employment, or the taking a wife, are events but not incidents; whilst on the other hand the setting out on a journey or the return, the purchase of a house or the dispatch of a vessel, are characterized as incidents and not events.

It is farther to be observed that accident, event, and occurrence are said only of that which is supposed really to happen: incidents and adventures are often fictitious; in this case the incident cannot be too im