of the street especially
hostile; a fifth will be constantly fortunate or unfortunate in love,
money matters, &c., and so to the end. All this may prove nothing, but
we may regard it at least as some indication that her realm is truly
within us and not without; and that a hidden force that emanates only
from us provides her with form and with vestment.

Her habits at times will suddenly alter, one eccentricity producing
another; some brusque change of front will give the lie to her
character, to confirm it the instant after in a new atmosphere. We say
then that "luck turns." May it not rather be our unconsciousness that
is gradually developing, at last displaying some prudence, attention,
and slowly becoming aware that important events are stirring in the
world to which it is attached? Has it gained some experience? Has a
ray of intelligence, a spark of will-power, filtered through to its
lair and hinted at danger? Does it learn, after years have flown, and
trial after trial has had to be borne, the wisdom of casting aside its
confident apathy? Can external disaster arouse it from perilous
slumber? Or, if it always has known what was happening over the roof
of its prison, is it able, after long and painful effort, at last, at
the critical moment, to contrive some sort of crevice in the great
wall, built by the indifference of centuries, that separates it from
its unknown sisters; and does it thus succeed in entering the ephemeral
life on which a part of its own life depends?

16

And yet we must admit that this hypothesis of unconsciousness will not
suffice to account for all the injustice of chance. Its three most
iniquitous acts are the three disasters--the most terrible of all to
which man is exposed--that habitually strike him before birth: I refer
to absolute poverty, disease (especially in the shocking forms of
physiological degradation and incurable infirmities, of repulsive
ugliness and deformity), and intellectual weakness. These are the
three great priestesses of unrighteousness that lie in wait for
innocence and brand it, on the threshold of life. And yet, mysterious
as their method of choice may appear, the triple source whence they
derive these three irremediable scourges is less mysterious than one is
inclined to believe. We need not look for it in a pre-established
will, in fatal, hostile, eternal, impenetrable laws. Poverty has its
origin in man's own province; and though we may marvel