ce human wisdom, proceeding on a well-ascertained body
of _statistics_, may construct a scheme for securing some against the
evils to which they would otherwise have been liable, by means of the
sacrifices of others, who would not have been in fact, although they
might have been, for ought they know, liable to the same. But what is
this, if it be not a practical acknowledgement of the uncertainty in
which all are placed in regard to some of the most important interests
of the present life? or how can it be said that chance or accident is
altogether, and in every sense, exploded, when large bodies of men are
found to combine, and that, too, at a considerable personal sacrifice,
for the express purpose of protecting themselves, so far as they can,
from the hazards to which they are individually exposed?

In the sense above explained, we cannot consent to discard "Chance"
altogether, either at the bidding of those who resolve everything into
"natural laws," or even in deference to the authority of others who
ascribe all events to Divine Providence. It may be true that all events,
however apparently casual or fortuitous, are governed by "natural laws;"
it may be equally true that all events are determined, directed, or
controlled by Divine Providence: but as long as some events depend on
causes which are certainly known, and other events on causes which are
not known, or on a combination of causes whose results cannot be
foreseen, so long will there be room for the distinction between the
_regular_ and the _accidental_ phenomena of human experience. This
distinction, indeed, is explicitly recognized in Scripture itself; for
while it speaks of all events as being infallibly known to God, it
speaks of some events that are _accidental_ with reference to man.[219]
The unknown, unforeseen, and unexpected incidents of life, which
constitute all that is apparently casual or accidental, may be, and we
believe they are, really subject both to natural laws and to God's
providential will; but they are removed far beyond our comprehension or
control; and being so, they are admirably fitted, as a part of the
complex scheme of His natural and moral government, to serve one of the
most important practical ends for which it is designed, by impressing us
with a sense of constant dependence on a higher Power, and of dutiful
subjection to a superior Will.

But while, in this sense and to this extent, the doctrine of "Chance" is
retained, it