e the gun; while others, one knows not how or why,
emerge unscathed from every battue.

They, therefore, are exposed, like ourselves, to incontestable
injustice. But it does not occur to us, when considering their
hardships, to set all the gods in motion or seek explanation from the
mysterious powers; and yet what happens to them may well be no more
than the image, naively simplified, of what happens to us. It is true
that we play the precise part, in their case, of those mysterious
powers whom we seek in our own. But what right have we to expect from
these last more consciousness, more intelligent justice, than we
ourselves show in our dealings with animals? And in any event, if this
instance shall only have deprived chance of a little of its useless
prestige and have proportionately augmented our spirit of initiative
and struggle, there will be a gain the importance of which is by no
means to be despised.

8

Still further allowance must therefore be made; but yet there
undoubtedly remains--at least as far as the more complex life of man is
concerned--a cause of good or evil fortune as yet untouched by our
explanations, in the often visible will of chance, which one might
almost call the "small change" of fatality. We know--and this is one
of those formless but fundamental ideas on the laws of life that the
experience of thousands of years has turned into a kind of instinct--we
know that men exist who, other things being equal, are "lucky" or
"unlucky." Circumstances permitted me to follow very closely the
career of a friend of mine who was dogged by persistent ill-fortune. I
do not mean to imply by this that his life was unhappy. It is even
remarkable that the malign influences always respected the broad lines
of his veritable happiness; probably because these were well guarded.
For he had in him a strong moral existence, profound thoughts and
hopes, feelings and convictions. He was well aware that these were
possessions that fortune could not touch: which indeed could not be
destroyed without his consent. Destiny is not invincible; through
life's very centre runs a great inward canal, which we have the power
to turn towards happiness or sorrow; although its ramifications, that
extend over our days, and the thousand tributaries that flow in from
external hazards, are all independent of our will.

It is thus that a beautiful river, streaming down from the heights and
ashine with magnificent glaciers,