began to say, there was no such being. Each
believed it an act of blind chance that any other man was preferred, but
owed only to service and merit what he had obtained himself. It is the
fault of studious men to appear in public with too contemplative a
carriage; and I began to observe, that my figure, age, and dress, made
me particular: for which reason I thought it better to remove a studious
countenance from among busy ones, and take a turn with a friend in the
Privy Garden.[259]

When my friend was alone with me there, "Isaac," said he, "I know you
came abroad only to moralise and make observations, and I will carry you
hard by, where you shall see all that you have yourself considered or
read in authors, or collected from experience, concerning blind Fortune
and irresistible Destiny, illustrated in real persons and proper
mechanisms. The Graces, the Muses, the Fates, all the beings which have
a good or evil influence upon human life, are, you'll say, very justly
figured in the persons of women; and where I am carrying you, you'll see
enough of that sex together, in an employment which will have so
important an effect upon those who are to receive their manufacture, as
will make them be respectively called Deities or Furies, as their labour
shall prove disadvantageous or successful to their votaries." Without
waiting for my answer, he carried me to an apartment contiguous to the
Banqueting House, where there were placed at two long tables a large
company of young women, in decent and agreeable habits, making up
tickets for the lottery appointed by the Government. There walked
between the tables a person who presided over the work. This gentlewoman
seemed an emblem of Fortune, she commanded as if unconcerned in their
business; and though everything was performed by her direction, she did
not visibly interpose in particulars. She seemed in pain at our near
approach to her, and most to approve us, when we made her no advances.
Her height, her mien, her gesture, her shape, and her countenance, had
something that spoke both familiarity and dignity. She therefore
appeared to me not only a picture of Fortune, but of Fortune as I liked
her; which made me break out in the following words:

"MADAM,

"I am very glad to see the fate of the many who now languish in
expectation of what will be the event of your labours in the hands
of one who can act with so impartial an indifference. Pardon me,
that