unexpected and the unaccountable play so large a part in human life
that they may well incite study. It is not conceivable that man should
always remain at the mercy of events without conscious and intelligent
choice in selecting and grouping them. Is there no Roentgen ray that
will pierce the horizon of the future and disclose to us what lies
beyond? Of course it is a sort of stock-in-trade, axiomatic assertion,
that if it were intended for man to know the future God would have
revealed it to him; and as it is not thus revealed, it is unwise, or
unlawful, or immoral to seek to read it. On the same principle and with
just as much logic, it might be solemnly declared that we have no right
to endeavor to surprise any of the secrets of the Universe; that if it
had been intended for us to know the weight and composition of the
stars, to understand the laws that hold them in their courses, or to
know what is conquered by the scientist in geology, or chemistry, or
anything else, that the knowledge would have been ready made, and as it
is not so, it is not lawful for man to explore any of these territories
of the unknown. Or this assertion could be carried to a still further
absurdity, and construed that if man had been intended to read he would
have been born with the knowledge, and have had no need of learning the
alphabet; or that if God had intended man to dwell in cities they would
have sprung up spontaneously like forests. As a matter of fact, the
extending of the horizon line of knowledge in every direction is man's
business in this part of life; and why, indeed, if he can weigh and
measure the stars in space, shall he not be able to compel some magic
mirror to reveal to him his future? As it is, we all tread on quicksands
of mystery, that may open and engulf us at any instant. It is simply
appalling when one stops to think of it,--to realize the degree to
which all one's achievements, and possibilities, and success, and
happiness depend on causes apparently outside his own control. One
awakens to begin the day without the remotest idea of what that day
holds for him. All his powers of accomplishment, all his energy, all his
peace of mind,--even the very matter of life or death hangs in the
balance, and the scales are to him invisible and intangible. The chance
of a moment may make or mar. A letter, a telegram, with some revelation
or expression that paralyzes all his powers; the arrival of an
unforeseen friend or guest,