a term we apply to events, to denote that they happen without any necessary or foreknown cause. See CAUSE.

Our aim is, to ascribe those things to chance, which are not necessarily produced as the natural effects of any proper cause; but our ignorance and precipitancy lead us to attribute effects to chance, which have a necessary and determinate cause.

When we say a thing happens by chance, we really mean no more, than that its cause is unknown to us: not, as some vainly imagine, that chance itself can be the cause of anything.

The case of the painter, who, unable to express the foam at the mouth of a horse he had painted, threw his sponge in despair at the piece, and, by chance, did that which he could not before do by design, is an eminent instance of the force of chance; yet, it is obvious, all we here mean by chance, is, that the painter was not aware of the effect; or that he did not throw the sponge with such a view: not but that he actually did every thing necessary to produce the effect; inasmuch, that, considering the direction wherein he threw his sponge, together with its form, specific specific gravity, the colours wherewith it was finer- ed, and the distance of the hand from the piece, it was impossible, on the present system of things, the effect should not follow.

Chance is frequently personified, and erected into a chimerical being, whom we conceive as acting ar- bitrarily, and producing all the effect whose real causes do not appear to us: in which sense the word coincides with the ῥυξεῖ, fortuna, of the ancients.

Chance is also used for the manner of deciding things, the conduct or direction whereof is left at large, and not reducible to any determinate rules or mea- sures; or where there is no ground for preference: as at cards, dice, lotteries, &c.

For the Laws of Chance, or the Proportion of Ha- zard in Gaming. See Game.

The ancient sortes or chance, M. Placette observes, was instituted by God himself; and in the Old Testa- ment we find several standing laws and express com- mands which prescribed its use on certain occasions: hence, the scripture says, "The lot, or chance, fell on Matthias;" when it was in question who should fill Judas's place in the apostolate.

Hence also arose the sortes sanctorum; or method of determining things, among the ancient Christians, by opening some of the sacred books, and pitching on the first verse they cast their eye on, as a sure prog- nostic of what was to befall them. The sortes Ho- mericae, Virgilianae, Franciscanae, &c., used by the hea- then, were with the same view, and in the same manner. See Sortes.

St Augustin seems to approve of this method of de- termining things future, and owns that he had practised it himself; grounded on this supposition, that God pre- sides over chance; and on Prov. xvi. 33.

Many among the modern divines hold chance to be conducted in a particular manner by providence; and esteem it an extraordinary way which God uses to declare his will, and a kind of immediate revela- tion.

Chance-Medley, in law, is where one is doing a lawful act, and a person is killed by chance thereby; for if the act be unlawful, it is felony. If a person casts, not intending harm, a stone, which happens to hit one, whereof he dies; or shoots an arrow in an highway, and another that passeth by is killed there- with; or if a workman, in throwing down rubbish from a house, after warning to take care, kills a per- son; or a schoolmaster in correcting his scholar, a matter his servant, or an officer in whipping a cri- minal in a reasonable manner, happens to occasion his death; it is chance-medley and misadventure. But if a man throw stones in a highway, where per- sons usually pass; or shoot an arrow, &c., in a mar- ket place among a great many people; or if a work- man cast down rubbish from a house, in cities and towns where people are continually passing; or a school-master, &c., correct his servant or scholar, &c., exceeding the bounds of moderation; it is man-slaugh- ter; and if with an improper instrument of correction, as with a sword or iron bar, or by kicking, stamp- ing, &c., in a cruel manner, it is murder. If a man whips his horse in a street to make him gallop, and the horse runs over a child and kills it, it is man- slaughter: but if another whips the horse, it is man- slaughter in him, and chance-medley in the rider. And if two are fighting, and a third person coming to part them is killed by one of them without any evil intent, yet this is murder in him; and not man- slaughter by chance-medley or misadventure. In chance-medley, the offender forfeits his goods; but hath a pardon of course.