happen so that all the World declare them to be the Effect of Fortune we may plainly see that there are such things as Fortune and Chance For we know very well both that the things of this Nature are the Work of Fortune and that what Fortune does is always of this Nature This manner of Argument supposes the common Forms of Speaking to be the Rule of True and False and that a Man may conclude from Words to Things which in a Philosopher is a most ridiculous Imagination For what is more common than for the People to entertain false Notions of Things and for the ways of expressing themselves suited to their Notions to be very improper and distant from the Truth Afterwards he says that when any thing of Advantage happens to a Man by Accident This is such a thing as we call the Effect of Fortune or Chance For Example A Man goes to a Place whither he does not use to go and where he should receive Money though at that time he went not thither with any such design if he receive Money there we say that he went thither and received it by Chance He pretends again that Herein Fortune and Chance differ Fortune is not properly concerned except in the Actions of such Beings as act upon a Principle of Choice whereas Chance takes place in the Effects of Causes which do not act by Choice I know not whether this Difference were constantly observed in common Speech but it is certain that those Bodies were called Automata which were thought to move of themselves Thus this Philosopher imagined he had defined the Nature of a Cause in Physicks while he only defined the Words by which People used to express themselves for he pretends that Chance had a great hand in Forming the Universe which is a most absurd Fancy and more becoming a Clown or an Ideot than a Philosopher as we shall see by and by The Latins who put no such distinction between Fortuna and Casus define them thus Lot Chance Fortune Event what else is all this but a thing 's falling out after one particular manner when it might either not have happened at all or have happened after quite another manner than it hath done Quid est aliud Sors quid Fortuna quid Casus quid Eventus nisi cum sic aliquid accidit sic evênit De Div. Nat. L. 2. c. 6. ut vel non cadere atque evenire vel aliter cadere atque evenire potuerit A Man that reads these Definitions of Fortune would be apt to think by some part of them that the Ancients did mean something by it and yet on the other hand to suspect that they had no Notion at all of the matter Aristotle is express that the common Way of Speaking proves Fortune and Chance to be something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if they be something what sort of Things are they Are they Spirits Are they Bodies Are they of some different Nature Aristotle in his Sixth Chapter of the Second Book of Physicks distinguishes them plainly from Spirit and * i. e. Body Nature for these he says are the Causes of all things Essentially and per se These two last Causes he owns did at first produce the Heaven and all the material World but yet he says that when all this was done a thousand Things were effected by Chance afterwards But still he does not inform us what this pretended Cause is considered in it self For in truth he knew not what he meant by it himself And one may see he did not by his quoting the common Form of Speech explaining the Word by the Use of it but never giving any Definition of Fortune He does indeed disallow that Notion of some who made Fortune a real Cause but such as the Mind of Man knew nothing of because too divine a thing for Man to comprehend it But all that he does is only telling us the Occasion how this Word grew so generally into Use In the mean while not to mention the Poets and their Modes of Speech which might be accused of too great liberty in Fiction the Temples which in several places were dedicated to Good or Ill Fortune seem to say that This was generally reputed a Deity For certainly Men must be mad to the last Degree who shall go about to build Temples address their Prayers and Praises and offer Sacrifices to any but Gods that is such as they believe to have a divine and much more an actual Existence Now This Reasoning were certainly conclusive did Men always speak and act consistently but as it is they often speak Words which they do not understand and do many Things when they know not what they do Tullus Hostilius built a Temple to Fear and Paleness Others erected Temples to the Mind to Vertue Pallori Pavori Liv. l. 1. c. 27. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. Lactan. l. 1. to Honour to Piety to Fidelity to Hope to Chastity to Concord to Peace to Rest to Safety to Fortune to Liberty c. Others again were consecrated to to the Feaver to the Year the Month to Art to Poverty to Old Age to Death Now I can by no means perswade my self that the Ancients believed all these things to be things actually Existing but they knew not what they did when they built such Temples and therefore the Actions of Men will give us no surer ground of arguing from them than their Words and common Talk will Nay Some among them were well aware that when Men talked of Fortune they talked of a thing they did not understand Democritus says Men formed to themselves a Phantome of Fortune Euseb Praep. Ev. l. xiv 27. only for a Cover to their Ignorance This Passage is likewise quoted from a Comedy of Philemon There is no such Deity as Men call Fortune no no such matter all things happen by Chance and that which the World calls Fortune is any thing that happens to Men without being able to give a Reason why it should do so So again Tully The Causes under the Governance of Fortune are secret for every thing must have its Cause Cic. Top. c. 17. but whatever is effected by a hidden Cause and by a Method which we cannot account for this is properly an Effect of Fortune And Juvenal tells us Sat. x. that Fortune is only a Goddess in Fiction and of Mens making Nullum Numen abest si sit Prudentia sed Te Nos facimus Fortuna Deam caeloque locamus Fortune was never Worshipp'd by the Wise But set aloft by Fools usurps the Skies Thus you see by the Testimony of these Heathen Writers that the Word Fortune signifies nothing at all though some pretended that it imports a real Existence I shall clear this Point by enquiring into the thing it self when I have first produced two Passages of Christian Authors who expose and confute the Worshippers of Fortune and were of my Opinion that this
Word signifies Nothing The former of these is Lactantius who argues thus Fortune in it self is nothing we are not to suppose that the Word denotes any thing of real existence Inst Divin l. 3. c. 29. take it in what sense you please Fortune is no more than an Event which is sudden and unexpected But the Philosophers that they might not fail to mistake in every thing pretended to be very Wise in a trifling Matter Those I mean who change the Sex of Fortune and will needs have it a God and not a Goddess The same Deity they call sometimes Nature and sometimes Fortune because as Cicero observes it effects many things which we do not expect by reason of our Ignorance in the Causes that produce them And not knowing the Reasons why a thing happens Men must needs be ignorant what it is that brings it about The same Author in a very serious Tract where he gives his Son Rules drawn from Philosophy to govern him in his Behaviour Who says he does not know that the Power of Fortune is great which side soever she takes For when she opposes us we are certainly worsted Lactantius after some Reflections upon Cicero which are not much to the Matter now in hand proceeds in this manner Who does not know says he For my part I know no such thing Let him shew me if he can what that Power is what is the Favour of Fortune and what her Opposition to us It is by no means for the Reputation of a Man of Wit and Parts to lay down a thing for granted which if one deny he is not able to make out The other Author which I shall produce upon this Occasion is * De Cons Phil. L. 1. Pros i. Boethius whose Style in Beauty is equal to that of Lactantius and his Reasoning is much before His. If any one says Philosophy with whom Boethius is holding a Dialogue defines an accidental Event Casum and such as is not produced by any Connexion of Causes I assert that Chance is nothing in the World that it is an empty Word without any Sense or Signification at all For where can Chance find a place in things which God keeps in a regular Method There is no greater Truth than that nothing can come out of nothing Not one of the Ancients ever contradicted this Maxime tho' they understood it not of the Efficient but the Material Cause Now if a thing were produced without a Cause that thing would come out of nothing But if this cannot be then neither can there be such a thing as Chance according to our Definition of it Well but replies Boethius is there then nothing which we can properly call fortuitous or casual Or is there somewhat to which these Names belong tho' the Vulgar know it not Aristotle says Philosophy hath cleared this Difficulty in few words in his Book of Physicks and comes very near to the truth of the matter What I pray is his Resolution of the Case Says Boethius When any thing is done with a certain design replies Philosophy and some other thing different from that which was intended does for other causes happen this thing so besides the Intention of the Agent is what we call a fortuitous or casual Event As if a Man for instance in digging his Ground with a design to cultivate it should find a Pot of Gold hidden there We say this is casual but yet it had a real and proper Cause and the unforeseen and unexpected Concurrence of such Causes forms that which is termed a casual Event If He who cultivated his Ground had not digged it or if he who buried this Treasure had not laid it in that place the Gold had not been found as it was These then are the Causes of that accidental Gain which happened to the Man by this Concurrence of theirs altogether foreign from the Design which he proposed to himself in digging his Ground The Remainder of this Argument may be seen in the Original for I cannot agree with Boethius in every Branch of it But this proves that if the Ancients used the words of Fortune or Chance to denote any unknown Being which acts without any Rule and which is neither a Spiritual nor a Bodily Substance they knew not their own meaning And yet thus I have shewed that Aristotle used them whatever Boethius says here to bring him off Let us now consider the Thing in it self And in order to discern what Sense these words Fortune and Chance are capable of we must remember that there are only Two sorts of Beings which we know of that can contribute to any thing that befals us The First sort consists of Bodies which acting alone and without the interposition of any other Cause leave no room for Fortune or Chance Because they act by fix'd unalterable Rules of Mechanism as all who have the least knowledge of Mechanicks and Natural Philosophy are abundantly satisfied The Common People indeed say a Body falls of it self when no Man nor any sensible Cause that comes under our Observation threw it down As when Fruit falls from a Tree or a Tile from the Roof of a House without any pulling or blast of Wind to blow it down And it is a very usual thing to say such things fell of themselves or by Chance But it is by no means true that nothing interposed and that no external Cause contributed to that Fall The Air and the Weight of the Bodies not to mention several other Causes that might concur occasioned their Fall A Body would continue for ever in the same State did not some Cause from without make an Alteration This is an Axiom in Natural Philosophy which I need not here go about to prove The second sort of Beings are what we call Spirits who among several other Faculties belonging to them are endued with Liberty which they exercise upon infinite Occasions They can at any time do or not do what they do they can do it after this or that manner they determine themselves in doubtful or indifferent Cases or what they look upon to be such by Humour and Fancy Without any Other Reason but that they have a mind to act so or so and without the interposition of any thing that should necessarily engage their Judgment or their Will Without troubling my Readers with a long Lecture of Metaphysicks I appeal to every Man 's own Sense and Experience and am entirely perswaded that all who will speak truly what they feel within themselves in innumerable Instances of Humane Life will agree that what I have said is the very Truth of the Case In this respect it may be said that the free determination of a Spiritual Substance is an Effect of Chance because it does not proceed from any necessary Cause And in regard Spirits act much upon Bodies the intervening of these Operations produce somewhat casual in those Motions which otherwise would not be at all We will put the
magnas bene gerendas divinitùs Adjuncta Fortuna De hujus autem hominis felicitate quo de nunc Agimus hac utar Moderatione dicendi non ut in illius potestate positam esse Fortunam sed ut praeterita meminisse reliqua sperare videamur It were easie to produce other Testimonies concerning Pompey's Good Fortune but there is no occasion at all for them It will be more agreeable to my present Design to Reflect alittle upon the Ill Fortune which befell him in the Civil War First of all when Caesar began to oppose him he was utterly unprovided of any Means to Resist him and under a necessity of quitting Rome and Italy to his Rival in an ignominious manner His Army in Spain under the Command of Afranius and Petreius was routed by Caesar without so much as one formal Battle He could not hinder him from passing out of Italy into Epirus tho' Caesar had no Fleet to withstand His. Caesar's Troops passed twice without Opposition He lost an Opportunity which was put into his Hands of defeating his Army which might all have been cut to pieces had he pursued the Advantage gained upon them in Epirus And in the Fight at Pharsalia where there was all the likelihood in the World of his beating Caesar he was so Vnfortunate that the very thing which in Appearance must have secured his Conquest was the very Occasion of his Ruine After this Defeat instead of retreating into Mauritania to King Juba who would most gladly have received and assisted him with all his Forces he unluckily threw himself into Egypt and was there Assassinated and Murdered just as he was going ashore Caesar on the Contrary had nothing but â—ood Fortune as we plainly see by his own commentaries and even the rashest and â—ost hazardous Undertakings prospered in his Hand His History is universally known and I need not insist upon Particulars I will therefore only detain the Reader with one single Passage taken out of Plutarch's Book Of the Fortune of the Romans Vpon leaving Brundusium says he the fourth of January he crossed the Sea successfully his Fortune getting the better of the Weather and the Season When he had found Pompey who was then in Epirus with his whole Army and Master both of the Field and the Sea though but a handful of his own Forces were with him those under Antonius and Sabinus being not yet come up to joyn him he boldly embarked in a small Vessel and set Sail without letting the Pilot know who he was and passing in the Disguise of a Servant A violent Storm springing up the Pilot began to tack and then discovering himself he said Go on my Lad and fear not spread all thy Sails to Fortune and take in all the Wind thou canst for thou hast Caesar and his Fortune on board thee Thus He was confident that this Good Fortune sailed and travelled with him that it encamped with him in the Army that it fought with him in his Battles in short that it never left him This made the Sea calm in the roughest Tempest this made Winter to him become as Summer this made Delay and Speed equally successful in the Event and inspired Cowards with Courage Nay which is yet more amazing this made Pompey flee and Ptolomy Murder his Friend that so Pompey might fall without Caesar having the Guilt of shedding his Son-in-law's Blood They who read this Book of Plutarch will find that he endeavours to represent the Greatness of the Roman Empire as an Effect of Good Fortune no less than of Conduct or Courage By these Examples it is plain and by infinite others it might be made appear that it is no new thing for Men to use those Words which in other Languages answer to Good and Ill Fortune in a sense denoting somewhat peculiar to this or that Person at least accompanying him for some Time and upon some Occasions which succeeds or defeats what he undertakes so as that his Prosperous or Disastrous Events cannot be charged upon his own Prudence or the Want of it Though Europe be at this Day Christian yet the Pagan Modes of Expression continue still in use and many Words are taken into common Speech which have scarce any Signification For after all what is this Je ne scay quoy which denominates Men Fortunate or Vnfortunate It can only be One of these Four things Either First Destiny which some heretofore and many even in our Days look â—pon as the Cause of all that happens in the World Or Secondly Fortune which is but another Name for Chance Or Thirdly what the Heathen called a Man 's Good or Evil Genius and some Christians still term his Good or Evil Angel Or else Lastly God himself Now I am positive that no Man without express Revelation can be assured that God or the Angels produce those Events for which we can assign no natural Cause and that Fortune and Destiny are merely imaginary things so that this pretended Principle of Good Luck is in effect nothing at all If a Man were with any Skill to examine those who think they understand themselves perfectly well when they talk of this Matter He would soon find them at a loss to make out their own Meaning If Socrates were alive again who had the knack of confounding Errours by driving Men to Absurdities with plain Questions he would quickly gravel the greatest part of those who talk of Good and Ill Luck by shewing them that they do not know what it is they would be at But it may perhaps be vain to expect that any Man should be found in this Art of Reasoning equal to that incomparable Philosopher And therefore we must content our selves with another Method of Disabusing Mankind by proving particularly that never a one of these Four things just now mentioned is the real Cause of Mens Good or Ill Luck either in Lotteries or in any other Matters which have no necessary Dependence upon the Skill anâ— Prudence of the Persons who engage iâ— them CHAP. III. That Destiny is not the Cause of Good Luck Ill Luck SEveral of the ancient Heathens and particularly the Sect of the Stoicks though every thing that happened to be the unavoidable Effect of Destiny And many no doubâ— at this Day tread in Their Steps from whence it is that we are so frequently told that No Man can avoid his Destiny and thaâ— so many Events are charged upon I know noâ— what Fatality which necessarily brings them to pass When the Stoicks heretofore were asked What they meant by Destiny they readily gave this Answer A certain Framâ— or Disposition of all things mutually linked together A Gell. L. vi c. 2. and moving it self by eternal Successions of Causes and Effects in such a Manner that nothing can break the Chain or divert its Course so that according to their Principles whatever at any time came to pass could not possibly but come to pass It were easie to shew from express
case that a Box full of Tickets for the purpose lyes upon a Table Those Tickets will all remain in the same situation till they are moved and that which lyes uppermost will infallibly be drawn first Here is no Chance in all this But if a Man shakes this Box several times without knowing what Alteration this shaking makes in the Order of the Tickets by the Will of that Person intervening upon this occasion and that in a manner altogether free Here is somewhat of Chance It is in the Choice of that Person whether he will shake the Box at all or not whether he will shake it more or less and to turn it as many different ways as he pleases In shaking and turning it he is guided purely by his own Humour without knowing what Effect this will have after all which that Ticket which comes next to hand is taken out without knowing to what Person it belongs This is the usual Manner of Drawing in Lotteries and this we may call meer Chance which makes such a Man's Ticket come up against such a Lot By this you see that Chance in proper speaking is Nothing And that when we say Such a Hit is owing to Chance the true meaning of it is that this is not meerly the Mechanical Effect of the Motion of the Tickets but that some Intelligent Being contributed to it which gave its free Assistance in the thing without knowing what would be the Consequence or how that Change in the Tickets could be made So that the Word is rather of a Negative than an Affirmative Importance or the Name of a Negative rather than a Positive Idea It denotes only thus much that there was no Cause intervening which did necessarily produce a certain and determinate Effect or that made use of its Understanding to produce that particular Effect The Abbot Furetiere observes that Chance is sometimes spoken of as a Person and denotes an Imaginary Being to which we foolishly attribute those Effects of whose Causes we are ignorant I own that sometimes Chance may have those Effects attributed to it which have a determinate and necessary Cause But when Men express themselves thus it is from their Ignorance at least if they pretend to speak properly But thus much is certain however as I have shewn that it is an Imaginary Being a Creature of our own Brain and that nothing less than a Poetical License will justifie our mentioning Chance as a Person which yet is a Form of Speech so much countenanced by common use that there are very few Expressions more frequently to be met with From these Premises it evidently follows that good Luck which is a Consequence of this Chance is likewise in the common acceptation of the Word a pure Chimera People pretend that good Luck is confined and fixed to some certain Persons and at the same time that it is the Effect of Chance which is a manifest Contradiction The Nature of Chance consists in its dependence upon a free Cause determining it self by Humour and Fancy without Order or Design and yet they will needs have it that good Luck is so fixed that it shall happen to this or that particular Man Now what can be more palpably absurd than to assert that an Effect is and is not determined at the same time Thus Chance in it self is nothing and the good Luck which goes along with some certain Persons is if I may so say somewhat less than nothing The First expresses a negative Idea only the Second a contradictory Idea if it be allowable to call a Contradiction an Idea The Case is all one with the word Fortune which is sometimes represented as a Cause peremptorily resolved to oblige some and to persecute others Fortune was on Pompey's side before the Civil Wars but afterwards she forsook and fought against him Alexander had her at his beck till his last Sickness but then he is thought Unfortunate not to escape Poysoning In short Ancient and Modern Writers both abound with Expressions opposite to each other when they speak of the Constancy or Inconstancy of Fortune The only Account whereof is that This is a Phantome of their own forming and that their Imagination added to or took from it at pleasure and as they saw occasion We commonly say that Men are the Sport of Fortune that she plays with them for her Diversion but it were more proper to say that Fortune is our Play-thing since we give and take away from her just what we think fit The Gentlemen of the French Academy after having said that Fortune was a Goddess with the Heathens add that Now-a-days though we do not own Fortune to be any thing in it self yet most of the Expressions then in use are still continued but that they are to be understood in a figurative Sense If these Expressions signified nothing in the Mouths of Them who erected Altars to Fortune I vehemently suspect they do not signifie much more in the Writings of Those Authors who use them figuratively now For indeed they are only used by a Prosopopoeia Now in a Prosopopoeia we are allowed indeed to speak of what we conceive in the quality of a Person but I have never heard nor read that we might make a Person of a meer Nothing or rather of that which is less than Nothing of that which we are not able to form any no not so much as a negative Conception of I have never observed any thing of this kind done except a Poem entituled Nothing which is altogether founded upon an equivocal Construction of the Word which is not easie if possible to be rendred properly Others as the Abbot Furetiere in particular pretend that by Fortune at present we are to understand Providence These are his Words in his Dictionary This was formerly a Heathen Goddess and thought to be the Cause of all surprising and extraordinary Events whereas in truth it is the Divine Providence acting by Methods unknown and far above Humane Wisdom It is confest that the Word Fortune ought many times to be thus understood if we will allow it to signifie any thing in the Writings of many Men and even of some Authors whose Eloquence and Delicacy of Expression is admired by all the World But yet this was not the thing They meant by it as will quickly appear if we take out the Word Fortune and substitute that of Providence in its stead I will produce some Instances to save my Reader the trouble of Search and Recollection such as will shew that there is no Figure in them which admits of any rational Meaning whether they would interpret it as personating a thing that is not or whether they would put upon Providence the vile and scandalous Disguise of Fortune These shall be taken out of M. Rochefoucaut's Maxims which must be acknowledged a Master-piece in their kind Observe how he expresses himself in his 60th Reflection They that think themselves Men of Merit esteem it a Happiness to
these things but only that we acknowledge every thing that happens to us to be an Effect of his Direction and Governance of the World And in this respect God is truly said to be the Cause of every thing excepting only the Evil of Sin which proceeds from the voluntary depravation of the Humane Nature Thus we may and ought to ascribe to God any Good Fortune that happens to us whether by matters depending upon Chance or any other way whatsoever though we do not think that he interposes after any particular or extraordinary manner for the determining of them Secondly This Proposition imports that God knowing before-hand all that happens in every kind and having it in his Power to hinder any part of it would not however put a stop to or divert the Course of Natural Causes to hinder the good Luck thus about to happen to any Person and that for special Reasons Tho' we cannot positively affirm that God had no such Reasons in his Eye because this is what we know nothing of Nor can we affirm that he had at least except God should please to reveal them to us or that we could fairly infer this by the Consequences of those Effects For the purpose The Great Lots lately drawn in England and Scotland are the Effects of Chance in the disposal whereof it is possible God might have some particular Reasons inducing him to give them to Those particular Men but it is possible too that he might not act upon any such particular Reasons He hath not revealed to us any thing of the Matter And the Consequences of that Advantage which some Persons gained have not produced Effects considerable enough to incline us to think that God had any particular Reasons for ordering those Benefits to those that enjoy them Thirdly This Proposition may signifie that God does interpose in casual Events after so particular a manner that he acts by an immediate Power and Providence in the Production of them And this is the usual Acceptation of the Words for otherwise Men have no reason to say that God presides over Lots and casual Events in any more particular manner than he does over all natural Effects whatsoever Now I am so far from denying that God can that I am well content to allow that he does upon several Occasions interpose after so extraordinary a manner as to make the Lot fall upon some certain Persons upon whom possibly it would not have fallen without such Interposition I shall explain my self by some Examples of this kind by and by But the thing I contend for is that generally speaking we cannot make God the immediate Author of good and ill Luck so as that he should bring this about by any supernatural and extraordinary Operation I am aware of one Passage in the Old Testament usually produced for Proof of the contrary Opinion But I hope to make it clear that it does not at all answer that purpose when I have first laid down the Reasons which induce me to believe that generally speaking God does not direct or concern himself with the Events of this kind more particularly than he does with those of any other kind whatsoever First I averr this Opinion to be A Supposition taken up without any Ground For I shall shew presently that there is nothing in Scripture to support it So that they who hold it have no other Refuge left than to prove it by the Consequences of such Events Now these Consequences as I said before are not of such Importance that the Finger of God should commonly be thought visible in them If the General Good of a Nation or Kingdom or of some Persons eminently serviceable to the Publick were the Result of such Events we then might probably conclude that God was more than ordinarily concerned to promote such good Effects But nothing of this kind yet appears nay we see quite contrary that several upon whom these Benefits have fallen make no other use of them than to be more profuse and vain in their Expences and make them either minister to their Pride or increase their Avarice And can any Man of common Sense suppose that God hath gone out of his Way as it were and wrought Miracles for the Advantage of the Vain and the Covetous Secondly If God act after a particular manner in Casual Events he either does it in All or in Some such only If in Some only let them be specified and let it be proved that such an Immediate Operation does not extend to the rest Now this is a Point never to be decided but by express Revelation or at least by Arguments drawn from Effects worthy of so particular a Providence Without one of these Proofs it is to no purpose to advance any such Distinction Now if God preside thus over all such Events and direct them by a positive and particular Act of his Will it will follow from hence that God works Miracles every Day for the sake of Men who it is but too plain are not worthy of them and in Places where we could hardly suspect that God should take any delight in exhibiting his Presence after an extraordinary manner They that play at Cards and Dice would at this rate engage God to declare for them by perpetual Wonders and the Groom-porters and Gaming-houses would have infinitely more Miracles wrought in them than ever the Temple it self or any other place had though we should take in all that stand upon Record or were ever done under the Old and New Testament I cannot tell whether such Consequences as these will go down with Others but for my own part I declare freely that there are very few things which I find my self less disposed to believe than that God works Miracles of this kind every Day for Gamesters Lotteries indeed are nothing near so frequent as Games but it is every whit as improbable that God should particularly interest himself in These as in Those For if the Placing of the Tickets be not the Effect of Chance but of a particular Providence then every Ticket drawn presents us with a fresh Miracle And as oft as Men shall take a fancy to set up new Lotteries God will be obliged if I may have leave to say so to come down from Heaven and regulate the Order of the Tickets He by his positive Assignment will dispense the Money to some and not to others without any visible reason of this difference whether we regard the Qualifications of the Persons or the Use they make of it Will those that have drawn the most considerable Benefits have the Confidence to say that their Merit was so much Superiour to Theirs who had only Blanks as to give them a better Title to the Favour of Heaven or have we any reasonable Assurance that this Success will dispose them to be more beneficent and charitable for the future This is an Enquiry which I charge upon their own Conscience to answer and what Time must inform