Fortune and chance are nearly equivalent, but chance can be used of human effort and endeavor as fortune can not be we say "he has a chance of success," or "there is one chance in a thousand," where we could not substitute fortune as personified, Fortune is regarded as having a fitful purpose, Chance as purposeless we speak of fickle Fortune, blind Chance " Fortune favors the brave." The slaughter of men is an incident of battle unexpected defeat, the fortune of war. Fortune is the result of inscrutable controlling forces. An incident is viewed as occurring in the regular course of things, but subordinate to the main purpose, or aside from the main design. We can speak of a game of chance, but not of a game of accident. To the theist there is, in strictness, no chance, all things being by divine causation and control but chance is spoken of where no special cause is manifest: "By chance there came down a certain priest that way," Luke x, 31. If the direct cause of a railroad accident is known, we can not call it a chance. An accident is that which happens without any one's direct intention a chance that which happens without any known cause.
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