lusive, changeful, and friend of the
unworthy. . . . We are so much at the mercy of chance that
Chance is our god.'

The word used is first _Fortuna_ and then _Sors_. This shows how little
real difference there is between the two apparently contradictory
conceptions.--'Chance would have it so.' 'It was fated to be.' The sting
of both phrases--their pleasant bitterness when played with, their
quality of poison when believed--lies in their denial of the value of
human endeavour.

Yet on the whole, as one might expect, the believers in Destiny are a
more respectable congregation than the worshippers of Chance. It
requires a certain amount of thoughtfulness to rise to the conception
that nothing really happens without a cause. It is the beginning,
perhaps, of science. Ionic philosophers of the fifth century had laid
stress on the +Ananke physios+,[134:1] what we should call the Chain of
causes in Nature. After the rise of Stoicism Fate becomes something less
physical, more related to conscious purpose. It is not _Ananke_ but
_Heimarmene_. Heimarmene, in the striking simile of Zeno,[134:2] is like
a fine thread running through the whole of existence--the world, we must
remember, was to the Stoics a live thing--like that invisible thread of
life which, in heredity, passes on from generation to generation of
living species and keeps the type alive; it runs causing, causing for
ever, both the infinitesimal and the infinite. It is the +Logos tou
Kosmou+,[135:1] the +Nous Dios+, the Reason of the World or the mind of
Zeus, rather difficult to distinguish from the Pronoia or Providence
which is the work of God and indeed the very essence of God. Thus it is
not really an external and alien force. For the human soul itself is a
fragment or effluence of the divine, and this Law of God is also the law
of man's own Phusis. As long as you act in accordance with your true
self you are complying with that divine +Heimarmene+ or +Pronoia+, whose
service is perfect freedom. Only when you are false to your own nature
and become a rebel against the kingdom of God which is within you, are
you dragged perforce behind the chariot-wheels. The doctrine is implied
in Cleanthes' celebrated Hymn to Destiny and is explained clearly by
Plotinus.[135:2]

That is a noble conception. But the vulgar of course can turn Kismet
into a stupid idol, as easily as they can Fortune. And Epicurus may have
had some excuse for exclaiming that he would so