Seldom does she relent towards those whom she has suckled
unkindly and seldom does she completely fail a favoured nursling.
Was George Pontifex one of Fortune's favoured nurslings or not? On the
whole I should say that he was not, for he did not consider himself so;
he was too religious to consider Fortune a deity at all; he took whatever
she gave and never thanked her, being firmly convinced that whatever he
got to his own advantage was of his own getting. And so it was, after
Fortune had made him able to get it.
"Nos te, nos facimus, Fortuna, deam," exclaimed the poet. "It is we who
make thee, Fortune, a goddess"; and so it is, after Fortune has made us
able to make her. The poet says nothing as to the making of the "nos."
Perhaps some men are independent of antecedents and surroundings and have
an initial force within themselves which is in no way due to causation;
but this is supposed to be a difficult question and it may be as well to
avoid it. Let it suffice that George Pontifex did not consider himself
fortunate, and he who does not consider himself fortunate is unfortunate.
True, he was rich, universally respected and of an excellent natural
constitution.
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