262.

Man is supreme lord and master

Of his own ruin and disaster,

Controls his fate, but nothing less

In ordering his own happiness:

For all his care and providence

Is too feeble a defence

To render it secure and certain

Against the injuries of Fortune;

And oft, in spite of all his wit,

Is lost by one unlucky hit,

And ruined with a circumstance,

And mere punctilio of a chance.

Butler.