Exalted and Humble FORTUNE.
Those were blind themselves, who feigned Fortune to be blind; and they were unjust, who accused her of partiality. This error is corrected by religion, when it teaches us, that what is meant by the word Fortune, is nothing else but the Divine Providence, which is all eyes, and proceeds in every thing from the justest motives. But although the error is corrected in the essential, the deception is not so effectually dispelled, but there is still left remaining, a faint appearance of the principle. The complainers of fortune, compute the inequality of men’s lots, according to the greater or less parade and figure which they make among their fellow creatures; and seeing that in a great measure, this inequality is not proportioned to men’s merits, the wicked attribute it to the chimerical force of accident, the idolators to the caprice of a blind deity, and the true believers to the disposing will of a Supreme Providence.
II. These last conclude well, but they suppose ill, for thus it is; the circling wheel of Fortune, and all its movements, are directed by a divine hand; and the raising up some, and casting down others, is so ordered and regulated, with the most wise design. It is also certain (and this reflection is of infinite importance) that with respect to many, we see but one half of the wheel’s turning, the remainder of its circuit being reserved for completion in the other world. We observe, that Fortune raises some, and never lowers them, and that it casts down others, without ever raising them. What is this? Nothing more, than that Providence in this mortal life, gives the wheel but half a turn; the round is concluded in the other hemisphere; so that those who rise here, go down there, and those who descend here, are there mounted up. This is the most ordinary course, although there is no rule without an exception.