Fortune-tellers are put in jail because they deceive; they should be hanged, did they tell the truth. How dull were life, could it be read ahead! Only a weak nature, such as his, would say with Hartley Coleridge, “Happiness is the exclusion of all _hap_, that is, chance.” More virile are the words of Charles James Fox, inveterate gambler that he was, “The next best thing to winning is to lose.” The uncertainty of the future is the only stimulus to exertion, and its obscurity is the source of our chief delights. * * * * * Always expect a change of luck. Then, if it is from good to bad, you will be prepared for it; and if from bad to good, you will have enjoyed the pleasure of expecting it, as well as its arrival. * * * * * “Give your son luck and throw him in the sea,” says a Spanish proverb. * * * * * There are men who succeed through their misfortunes rather than their good fortunes. * * * * * People regard bad luck as a kind of injustice. They secretly say with Louis XIV, when his armies were defeated in Flanders, “Has God forgotten all I have done for Him?” * * * * * The ancients reckoned a man’s luck, good or bad, among the gifts with which he is endowed by nature. * * * * * In very strong characters there is something which eludes analysis and defies definition, the very goad of destiny, driving them on their allotted paths with unrelenting and inevitable impulse. This is what the ancient Greeks, and among the moderns especially Goethe, recognized as the “demonic force.” It endows a life with dramatic unity and historic completeness. * * * * * Fate lies in fetters, so she no longer rules the stage. * * * * * The folly of some men turns out better than the foresight of others. * * * * * With Courage and Civility as allies you can often take captive Good-luck. * * * * * He who has well considered all the chances is prepared for the worst. * * * * * Because one cannot see ahead clearly, should he put out his eyes? * * * * * The captain who prefers trusting to luck to taking an observation is not the man to sail with. * * * * * Bacon advises to use such as have been lucky because of the confidence they breed in others and the effort they will make “to maintain their prescription.” * * * * * The first principle of success in the game of life is to be willing to lose. The player who will not sacrifice his pawns will soon have his king in check. * * * * * Keep your wits about you. In the immediate exigencies of life a full pocketbook is more useful than a fine bank balance. * * * * *