"These then are the causes of this fortuitous acquisition: from these alone it arose, and not from any intention of the human will. For it was not the design, either of the person who hid the treasure, nor of him who laboured the ground, that this discovery should have been made. But as I just now said, the one finding it convenient to dig, where the other had concealed the money, by the concurrence of these two causes, the former obtained the prize. Chance may be therefore defined, an unexpected event, by a concurrence of causes, following an action designed for a [different] particular purpose. ...[T]his concurrence of causes is the effect of that necessary order, which streams from the pure fountain of Providence, and disposes every thing in its proper time and place."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boethius's_Consolation_of_Philosophy