of it for that philosopher, calls it "the Stochastic," a term
derived from the Greek and from archery, meaning "to shoot at a mark."
This eminent genius, it seems, often "hit the white." Our biographer
declares, that "though he were no prophet, yet in that faculty which
comes nearest to it, he excelled, _i.e._, _the Stochastic_, wherein he
was seldom mistaken as to _future events_, as well public as private."

We are not, indeed, inculcating the fanciful elements of an occult art.
We know whence its principles may be drawn; and we may observe how it
was practised by the wisest among the ancients. Aristotle, who collected
all the curious knowledge of his times, has preserved some remarkable
opinions on the art of _divination_. In detailing the various
subterfuges practised by the pretended diviners of his day, he reveals
the _secret principle_ by which one of them regulated his predictions.
He frankly declared that the FUTURE being always very obscure, while the
PAST was easy to know, _his predictions had never the future in view_;
for he decided from the PAST as it appeared in human affairs, which,
however, lie concealed from the multitude.[187] Such is the true
principle by which a philosophical historian may become a skilful
diviner.

Human affairs make themselves; they grow out of one another, with slight
variations; and thus it is that they usually happen as they have
happened. The necessary dependence of effects on causes, and the
similarity of human interests and human passions, are confirmed by
comparative parallels with the past. The philosophic sage of holy writ
truly deduced the important principle, that "the thing that hath been is
that which shall be." The vital facts of history, deadened by the touch
of chronological antiquarianism, are restored to animation when we
comprehend the principles which necessarily terminate in certain
results, and discover the characters among mankind who are the usual
actors in these scenes. The heart of man beats on the same eternal
springs; and whether he advances or retrogrades, he cannot escape out of
the march of human thought. Hence, in the most extraordinary revolutions
we discover that the time and the place only have changed; for even when
events are not strictly parallel, we detect the same conducting
principles. Scipio Ammirato, one of the great Italian historians, in his
curious discourses on Tacitus, intermingles ancient examples with the
modern; that, he says, a