Strona 204 z 310

[1] Frederick the Great was accustomed to say: "The older one

gets the more convinced one becomes that his Majesty King Chance

does three-quarters of the business of this miserable universe."

Sorel's "Eastern Question."

I compare her to one of those raging rivers, which when in flood

overflows the plains, sweeping away trees and buildings, bearing

away the soil from place to place; everything flies before it,

all yield to its violence, without being able in any way to

withstand it; and yet, though its nature be such, it does not

follow therefore that men, when the weather becomes fair, shall

not make provision, both with defences and barriers, in such a

manner that, rising again, the waters may pass away by canal, and

their force be neither so unrestrained nor so dangerous. So it

happens with fortune, who shows her power where valour has not

prepared to resist her, and thither she turns her forces where

she knows that barriers and defences have not been raised to

constrain her.