Chapter 32
Fate, destiny and providence as they bear on human lives; what is fated or foreordained.
1089 passages · 236 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts
The idea of fate gathers several notions that the great books sometimes keep apart and sometimes fuse. One is the allotted portion, the thread spun at birth. Another is the decree of a god. A third is the providence that orders all things toward an end, and a fourth is the fickle fortune that raises men and casts them down. Under these headings fall the most persistent questions men ask about their own lives. Is what happens to me written beforehand? Can I alter it? If I cannot, am I answerable for what I do? Few ideas run so continuously through the Harvard Classics. Homer’s suitors die by a fixed doom, the Thousand and One Nights repeat that what is written cannot be escaped, and nineteenth-century poets debate whether man is fate’s puppet or its master. The idea is great because nearly every author who writes about human action must decide how much of that action is truly his own.
The first difficulty is one of naming. Marcus Aurelius holds that everything from the gods is full of providence, and that fortune itself is woven into a providential order and necessity1. Whatever happens comes from God along destiny’s thread2. Raleigh reports that the Academics ranked Providence first, Fate second and Nature third3. Milton’s God goes further and makes Fate simply the name of his own will, untouched by Necessity or Chance4. Dante folds fortune into the same scheme: her changes follow a divine appointment hidden from us, and nations rise and languish at her will5. The older poetry personifies these powers instead. In Homer the spinning women spin at birth what a man must later suffer6, and the gods spin the skein of death for men7. Aeschylus’ Furies call themselves the ancient Fates, whose service all-pervading Fate has spun8,9. The Anglo-Saxon Wyrd fares as she must10, yet she often spares an undoomed man if he is brave11. The poet sets her beneath a higher law, for the doom of the Lord governs every man’s deeds12. The pagan figure survives in Christian dress. Dante’s Virgil explains that Clotho has not yet finished spinning Dante’s thread13, while Marcus counsels giving oneself up willingly to Clotho14.
The stars offered a rival account, and the Christian tradition fought it hard. Augustine rejects the astrologers’ claim that sin is decreed in heaven, since it blames the stars rather than the man15. He points to two children born at the same instant under identical stars whose fortunes proved opposite16. Dante takes a middle course. The heavens incline each seed toward its aim, but grace adds gifts beyond them17, and to lay human evil on the necessity of the spheres is plainly rejected18. The rejection does not hold everywhere. Cellini repeatedly claims that the stars force rather than sway him, and he blames malignant planets for his troubles19,20. Kent supposes that the stars must govern our conditions, since nothing else explains how the same parents beget such different children21. Edmund, meanwhile, mocks the whole excuse of planetary compulsion22. Calderón’s Basilio acts on his son’s horoscope and then wonders whether the stars could ever be overruled23. Segismund in turn charges that men shift their guilt onto the stars24.
Behind the stars stands the larger claim that providence orders all events. Luke presents Herod and Pilate as doing what God’s counsel foreordained25. He tells how Paul assures a shipwrecked crew that all will live, because God has decreed that Paul must stand before Caesar26. Augustine reads his own journey to Rome as God ordering a man’s steps27. Thomas à Kempis holds that nothing on earth comes to pass without God’s counsel28. The Arabian tales say the same thing in a folk idiom: Sindbad endures all by fate, and from what is written there is no escape29. Hamlet sees a divinity that shapes our ends however we rough-hew them30. Browne finds providence working obscurely in each life under the name of fortune31, and Pascal counsels committing all outcomes to it, since man is too weak to judge them32. Manzoni’s characters see its hand everywhere, most pointedly when Don Abbondio calls the plague a good broom sweeping away oppressors33. The same conviction is extended to peoples. Browne holds that nations rise and fall by God’s predestined periods, not by fortune34. Raleigh holds that providence fixes the term of every estate before it is founded35. Burke watches kings hurled from their thrones by the Supreme Director of the drama36. Lincoln speaks of slavery as an offense that in God’s providence must come and be removed37. Explorers and founders read their own enterprises the same way. Haies believes God reserved the northern lands for England38, and he accepts even a wreck as God’s determined ruin39. Washington discerns providential agency in each step of American independence40.
Doubt shadows this confidence. Ecclesiastes observes that the same event befalls righteous and wicked alike41. Milton’s chorus in Samson Agonistes watches providence exalt and then throw down its own chosen42. Hume’s Epicurus denies that we can infer any providence beyond the observed course of things43. Rousseau’s Vicar holds that providence does not contrive man’s free acts or prevent his evil44. Lamb confesses that heaven’s economy remains dark45, and Thackeray finds that fortune shifts by an inscrutable design46.
The sharpest problem comes when divine decree meets human choice. Dante’s heaven teaches that the root of predestination is hidden even from the blessed47,48. Browne answers that predestination is not foreknowledge at all but a will already fulfilled in God’s eternal present49. Milton dramatizes the dispute twice. The fallen angels reason endlessly of foreknowledge, will and fate and find no end50. God himself denies that his foreknowledge had any influence on the fall51. The pattern is already present in Luke’s saying that the Son of man goes as was determined, yet woe to his betrayer52. Chaucer raises the same scholastic question with a wink over a cock and a fox53. Burns satirizes the doctrine that election and damnation are fixed regardless of what men do54.
Homer had already given the decisive answer to those who blame the gods. His Zeus complains that men bring sorrows on themselves beyond what is ordained, as Aegisthus did55. Aeschylus’ Hermes likewise says the chorus enters Ate’s net by its own folly56, though Clytemnestra pleads that Fate shared in her deeds57. Renan judges that the Celts regard evil as the work of destiny rather than of conscience58. FitzGerald’s Omar, on the other side, protests that man cannot answer for a debt he never contracted59.
Among the moderns the question becomes one of self-mastery. Hamlet’s player says that our thoughts are ours but their ends are not60. Egmont thinks a man supposes he directs his life while destiny controls him irresistibly61. Omar compares men to pieces in the Master’s game, written by a Moving Finger62. Against this, Kant fears that leaving the contradiction unresolved would let the fatalist drive morality out of its domain63. Mill distinguishes the doctrine of circumstances from fatalism64. Emerson declares that the honest man commands all fate65. Lowell grants that men look like Fate’s puppets yet holds that we shape our fate66. Henley is the boldest: he is the master of his fate67.
The ancients asked a further question that monotheism largely dissolves: whether fate binds the gods themselves. Homer’s Athene admits that even the gods cannot avert death from a man they love68. Prometheus says that Zeus cannot escape what is decreed, for Necessity is steered by the Fates69. Euripides makes it a law of Zeus that no god may thwart another’s fixed will70. In Virgil, Jove mourns the death of Pallas but permits it71. He declares that all things are pushed by the Fates to their end72, and he grants Turnus only a short reprieve73. Dryden debates in his Dedication whether Virgil’s Jupiter can alter fate or only defer it74. He concludes, on Stoic grounds, that the god obeys destiny himself75.
Prophecy is where fate becomes visible, and the most terrible irony is the oracle fulfilled by the very effort to escape it. Oedipus flees Corinth to avoid parricide and walks into it76. Teiresias had already said that fate’s decree stands fixed77. Calderón’s Segismund concludes that Basilio’s attempt to thwart the prophecy brought it about78. The Arabian youth hidden from his fated slayer dies when his foot slips as God decreed79. In the Grimms’ tale the spindle curse holds even after every spindle in the kingdom is burned80. Macbeth tries to take a bond of fate, trusting the prophecy while still plotting murder81, and Hecate knows that security is mortals’ chief enemy82. Omens close in with the same inevitability. Plutarch finds Caesar’s fate more unavoidable than unexpected83, and in the Irish saga Conaire’s taboos fall one by one84. Several writers reckon ignorance of the future a mercy. Pope says Heaven hides the book of fate kindly85, and Pascal adores the providence that conceals which events are best for us86.
Fate also lies upon houses and upon each appointed hour. Aeschylus’ chorus sees a curse in the blood of Atreus renewing murder87, and the Furies say the father’s sin descends on the child88. Sophocles traces the doom down the line of Labdacus89, and the cursed gold of the Volsungs ruins every owner90. Death keeps its hour everywhere in these books. No tower or ship avails against Destiny91, and there is no armour against fate92. A man whose death is decreed will die in no other land93. Dying Sigurd declares that none may fight his fate and prevail94. Browne makes the span of life God’s twining hand rather than nature’s95, and Krishna tells Arjuna that he but slays the slain96. Passion too is called fated. Phaedra feels Venus pursuing her race97, and Brynhild speaks of a doom binding her to Sigurd through the ages98.
In the epics fate becomes vocation. Jove unfolds the fixed decree of Rome’s empire99. Aeneas pleads to Dido that fate, not his choice, calls him to Italy100, and he promises his men that their sorrows will be remembered as benefits of Fate101. Juno knows that the Trojans are secure of fate and can only delay them102. Odysseus is ordained to return home103, but only after a measure of suffering104. The suitors fall by the destiny of the gods and by their own cruel deeds together105, a double causation that Virgil also observes in Dido, who dies by the rage of love and not by heaven’s decree106.
Fortune’s wheel teaches the instability of greatness. The chorus of Oedipus draws the lesson of reversal107, and Montaigne sees a hidden power trampling down prosperity108. Raleigh calls God the author of our tragedies, who changes our fortunes as we change garments109. Quixote consoles Sancho that neither good nor ill fortune lasts110. Machiavelli turns the lesson into strategy. Fortune is a flood that shows its power where no defences have been built111. Princes who lose their states should blame their own inertness112, and Fortune, being a woman, yields to boldness113. Cicero had urged a manly soul to beat her back like a rock114. Dryden’s Antony, by contrast, boasts that fate could not ruin him until he chose115.
The final question is how a man should meet what is fated. The Stoics answer with consent. Epictetus says one should wish things to happen as they do116 and play well the part the author assigns117. Marcus would have us love only what is spun with our thread118, whether the world is governed by providence or by confusion119. The northern heroes meet the same lot with a harder calm. Sigmund accepts his death when Odin breaks his sword120, and Conaire says it is all one what death he goes to121. Christian submission adds trust. Hamlet finds a special providence in a sparrow’s fall122. Pascal tells the bereaved to unite their will to God’s decree123, and Lucia says simply “His will be done”124. In the Arabian tales the formula that God’s decree cannot be averted serves the same end125.
Others complain. Penelope blames the gods for begrudging her joy126, and Oedipus blames Apollo127, though Epictetus scorns those who complain of fortune128. Still others defy. Hnikar calls it base to grovel before fate129. Emerson finds heroism in the will’s unequal combat with fate130, and Tennyson’s Ulysses strives against time and fate131. Omar would conspire with Fate to remould the scheme of things nearer the heart’s desire132. Milton’s devils hope to rise again in spite of Fate133, which suggests that defiance can also be pride. The books leave open whether acceptance, trust or resistance best befits a free creature under an order he did not make.
Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.
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See also: God 7b
See also: God 11c
See also: God 11b · Revenge 7c
See also: Prophecy 2d
See also: Prophecy 7a · Revenge 4a
See also: Prophecy 4b
See also: Punishment 7b · Sin 6b · Family 10c · Revenge 4a
See also: Race and Nationality 2b · Religion 5a · Duty 6d · God 11a
See also: God 11b
See also: God 7a
See also: Courage 7c · Will 8a
See also: Family, Revenge, Prophecy, God, Emotion, Life and Death