[210] DR. CHALMERS, "Works," II. 286.

[211] Ibid., 325.

[212] HON. ROB. BOYLE, "Theolog. Works," II. 96, III. 230. PRESIDENT
EDWARDS, "Works," X. 1.

[213] EULER, "Letters to a German Princess," I. 271.

[214] DR. WOLLASTON, "Religion of Nature," p. 103.

[215] DR. ROBT. GORDON, "Sermons," p. 369.

[216] It is with melancholy pleasure that the author recalls and
reproduces, after an interval of thirty years, the lines of his early
college companion,--WILLIAM FRIEND DURANT,--a young man of high promise,
removed, like his distinguished fellow-student, ROBERT POLLOCK, by what
might seem a premature death, but for the prospect of immortality.

CHAPTER VI.

THEORIES OF CHANCE AND FATE.

When we survey the actual course of God's Providence, by which the
eternal purposes of the Divine Mind are carried into effect, we discern
immediately a marked difference between _two great classes of events_.
The one comprehends a multitude of events which are so regular, stable,
and constant, that we feel ourselves warranted in reckoning on their
invariable recurrence, in the same circumstances in which they have been
observed; they seem to be governed by an unchangeable, or at least an
established law. The other comprehends a different set of events, which
are so irregular and variable that they occur quite unexpectedly, and
cannot be reduced to any rule of rational computation; they
appear,--perhaps from our ignorance,--to be purely accidental or
fortuitous.

In exact accordance with this difference between the two great classes
of Providential events, there is a similar difference in our _internal
views or sentiments_ in regard to them. We are conscious of two totally
dissimilar feelings in contemplating them respectively. We have a
feeling of certainty, confidence, or assurance in regard to the one; and
a feeling of uncertainty, anxiety, and helplessness in regard to the
other; while for an intermediate class of events, there is also an
intermediate state of mind, equally removed from entire certainty and
absolute doubt, arising from the various degrees of _probability_ that
may seem to belong to them. These are at once natural and legitimate
sentiments in the circumstances in which we are placed; for
unquestionably there is much in these circumstances that is fitted to
produce and cherish them all; and when they are combined,--especially
when they are duly proportioned, in the case of any individual, they
induce