4
The Mastery of Destiny
“The Moving Finger writes, and having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Thus, men in all nations and times have experienced in their lives the action of this invincible Power or Law, and in our nation to-day this experience has been crystallized in the terse proverb, “Man proposes, God disposes.”
But, contradictory as it may appear, there is an equally wide-spread belief in man’s responsibility as a free agent.
All moral teaching is an affirmation of man’s freedom to choose his course and mould his destiny; and man’s patient and untiring efforts in achieving his ends are declarations of consciousness of freedom and power. This dual experience of fate on the one hand. and freedom on the other, has given
