of fortune.

plato says, that it is an accidental cause and a casual consequence in things which proceed from the election and counsel of men. aristotle, that it is an accidental cause in those things done by an impulse for a certain end; and this cause is uncertain and unstable: there is a great deal of difference betwixt that which flows from chance and that which falls out by fortune; for that which is fortuitous allows also chance, and belongs to things practical; but what is by chance cannot be also by fortune, for it belongs to things without action: fortune, moreover, pertains to rational beings, but chance to rational and irrational beings alike, and even to inanimate things. epicurus, that it is a cause not always consistent, but various as to persons, times, and manners. anaxagoras and the stoics, that it is that cause which human reason cannot comprehend; for there are some things which proceed from necessity, some things from fate, some from choice and free-will, some from fortune, some from chance.