2022-12-01_Meet_the_Goddess_of_Good_Luck
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00:00:30.000 | If a man be lucky, there is no foretelling the possible extent of his good fortune.
00:00:36.000 | Pitch him into the Euphrates, and like as not, he will swim out with a pearl in his hand.
00:00:43.000 | Babylonian proverb.
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00:01:15.000 | The desire to be lucky is universal.
00:01:20.000 | It was just as strong in the breasts of men 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon as it is in the hearts of men today.
00:01:27.000 | We all hope to be favored by the whimsical goddess of good luck.
00:01:32.000 | Is there some way we can meet her and attract not only her favorable attention but her generous favors?
00:01:39.000 | Is there a way to attract good luck?
00:01:43.000 | That is just what the men of ancient Babylon wished to know.
00:01:46.000 | It is exactly what they decided to find out.
00:01:48.000 | They were shrewd men and keen thinkers.
00:01:52.000 | That explains why their city became the richest and most powerful city of their time.
00:01:57.000 | In that distant past, they had no schools or colleges.
00:02:02.000 | Nevertheless, they had a center of learning and a very practical one it was.
00:02:06.000 | Among the towered buildings in Babylon was one that ranked in importance with the Palace of the King,
00:02:13.000 | the Hanging Gardens, and the Temples of the Gods.
00:02:16.000 | You will find scant mention of it in the history books, more likely no mention at all.
00:02:21.000 | Yet, it exerted a powerful influence upon the thought of that time.
00:02:25.000 | This building was the Temple of Learning, where the wisdom of the past was expounded by voluntary teachers
00:02:33.000 | and where subjects of popular interest were discussed in open forums.
00:02:37.000 | Within its walls, all men met as equals.
00:02:41.000 | The humblest of slaves could dispute with impunity the opinions of a prince of the royal house.
00:02:48.000 | Among the many who frequented the Temple of Learning was a wise, rich man named Arkad,
00:02:54.000 | called "the richest man in Babylon."
00:02:58.000 | He had his own special hall where, almost any evening, a large group of men,
00:03:03.000 | some old, some very young, but mostly middle-aged, gathered to discuss and argue interesting subjects.
00:03:11.000 | Suppose we listen in to see whether they knew how to attract good luck.
00:03:16.000 | The sun had just set like a great red ball of fire, shining through the haze of desert dust,
00:03:23.000 | when Arkad strolled to his accustomed platform.
00:03:27.000 | Already full four-score men were awaiting his arrival, reclining on their small rugs spread upon the floor.
00:03:34.000 | More were still arriving.
00:03:36.000 | "What shall we discuss this night?" Arkad inquired.
00:03:40.000 | After a brief hesitation, a tall cloth weaver addressed him, arising as was the custom.
00:03:47.000 | "I have a subject I would like to hear discussed, yet hesitate to offer lest it seem ridiculous to you, Arkad, and my good friends here."
00:03:55.000 | Upon being urged to offer it, both by Arkad and by calls from the others, he continued,
00:04:01.000 | "This day I have been lucky, for I have found a purse in which there are pieces of gold.
00:04:06.000 | To continue to be lucky is my great desire.
00:04:09.000 | Feeling that all men share with me this desire, I do suggest we debate how to attract good luck,
00:04:16.000 | that we may discover ways it can be enticed to one."
00:04:20.000 | "A most interesting subject has been offered," Arkad commented, "one most worthy of our discussion.
00:04:27.000 | To some men, good luck bespeaks but a chance happening that, like an accident, may befall one without purpose or reason.
00:04:36.000 | Others do believe that the instigator of all good fortune is our most bounteous goddess, Ashtar,
00:04:43.000 | ever anxious to reward with generous gifts those who please her.
00:04:48.000 | Speak up, my friends. What say you?
00:04:50.000 | Shall we seek to find if there be means by which good luck may be enticed to visit each and all of us?"
00:04:57.000 | "Yay, yay, and much of it," responded the growing group of eager listeners.
00:05:02.000 | Thereupon Arkad continued, "To start our discussion, let us first hear from those among us
00:05:08.000 | who have enjoyed experiences similar to that of the cloth weaver,
00:05:12.000 | in finding or receiving without effort upon their part valuable treasures or jewels."
00:05:20.000 | There was a pause in which all looked about, expecting someone to reply, but no one did.
00:05:26.000 | "What? No one?" Arkad said. "Then rare indeed must be this kind of good luck.
00:05:32.000 | Who now will offer a suggestion as to where we shall continue our search?"
00:05:38.000 | "That I will do," spoke a well-robed young man arising.
00:05:42.000 | "When a man speaketh of luck, is it not natural that his thoughts turn to the gaming tables?
00:05:47.000 | Is it not there we find many men courting the favor of the goddess
00:05:52.000 | in hope she will bless them with rich winnings?"
00:05:56.000 | As he resumed his seat, a voice called, "Do not stop. Continue thy story.
00:06:01.000 | Tell us, didst thou find favor with the goddess at the gaming tables?
00:06:05.000 | Did she turn the cubes with red side up, so thou filled thy purse at the dealer's expense?
00:06:11.000 | Or did she permit the blue sides to come up, so the dealer raked in thy hard-earned pieces of silver?"
00:06:17.000 | The young man joined the good-natured laughter, then replied,
00:06:21.000 | "I am not averse to admitting she seemed not to know I was even there.
00:06:26.000 | But how about the rest of you? Have you found her waiting about such places
00:06:30.000 | to roll the cubes in your favor? We are eager to hear, as well as to learn."
00:06:35.000 | "A wise start," broke in Arkad. "We meet here to consider all sides of each question.
00:06:42.000 | To ignore the gaming table would be to overlook an instinct common to most men,
00:06:47.000 | the love of taking a chance with a small amount of silver in the hope of winning much gold."
00:06:53.000 | "That doth remind me of the races, but yesterday," called out another listener,
00:06:57.000 | "if the goddess frequents the gaming tables, certainly she does not overlook the races,
00:07:02.000 | where the gilded chariots and the foaming horses offer far more excitement.
00:07:07.000 | Tell us honestly, Arkad, did she whisper to you to place your bet upon those gray horses from Nineveh yesterday?
00:07:15.000 | I was standing just behind thee, and could scarce believe my ears when I heard thee place thy bet upon the grays.
00:07:22.000 | Thou knowest as well as any of us that no team in all Assyria can beat our beloved bays in a fair race.
00:07:30.000 | Didst the goddess whisper in thy ear to bet upon the grays because, at the last turn, the inside black would stumble,
00:07:37.000 | and so interfere with our bays that the grays would win the race and score an unearned victory?"
00:07:43.000 | Arkad smiled indulgently at the banter.
00:07:47.000 | "What reason have we to feel the good goddess would take that much interest in any man's bet upon a horse race?
00:07:53.000 | To me she is a goddess of love and dignity, whose pleasure it is to aid those who are in need, and to reward those who are deserving.
00:08:02.000 | I look to find her, not at the gaming tables or the races where men lose more gold than they win,
00:08:08.000 | but in other places where the doings of men are more worthwhile and more worthy of reward.
00:08:14.000 | In tilling the soil, in honest trading, in all of a man's occupations,
00:08:19.000 | there is opportunity to make a profit upon his efforts and his transactions.
00:08:24.000 | Perhaps not all the time will he be rewarded, because sometimes his judgment may be faulty,
00:08:29.000 | and other times the winds and the weather may defeat his efforts.
00:08:33.000 | Yet, if he persists, he may usually expect to realize his profit.
00:08:38.000 | This is so because the chances of profit are always in his favor.
00:08:42.000 | But when a man playeth the games, the situation is reversed,
00:08:46.000 | for the chances of profit are always against him, and always in favor of the gamekeeper.
00:08:52.000 | The game is so arranged that it will always favor the keeper.
00:08:55.000 | It is his business at which he plans to make a liberal profit for himself from the coins bet by the players.
00:09:02.000 | Few players realize how certain are the gamekeeper's profits, and how uncertain are their own chances to win.
00:09:09.000 | For example, let us consider wagers placed upon the cube.
00:09:14.000 | Each time it is cast, we bet which side will be uppermost.
00:09:18.000 | If it be the red side, the game master pays to us four times our bet.
00:09:23.000 | But if any other of the five sides come uppermost, we lose our bet.
00:09:28.000 | Thus, the figures show that for each cast we have five chances to lose,
00:09:34.000 | but because the red pays four for one, we have four chances to win.
00:09:39.000 | In a night's play, the game master can expect to keep, for his profit, one-fifth of all the coins wagered.
00:09:46.000 | Can a man expect to win more than occasionally against odds so arranged that he should lose one-fifth of all his bets?
00:09:54.000 | "Yet some men do win large sums at times," volunteered one of the listeners.
00:09:59.000 | "Quite so, they do," Arkad continued.
00:10:02.000 | "Realizing this, the question comes to me whether money secured in such ways brings permanent value to those who are thus lucky."
00:10:11.000 | "Among my acquaintances are many of the successful men of Babylon."
00:10:16.000 | "Yet among them I am unable to name a single one who started his success from such a source."
00:10:23.000 | "You, who are gathered here tonight, know many more of our substantial citizens."
00:10:28.000 | "To me it would be of much interest to learn how many of our successful citizens can credit the gaming tables with their start to success."
00:10:37.000 | "Suppose each of you tell of those you know. What say you?"
00:10:43.000 | After a prolonged silence, a wag ventured, "Would thy inquiry include the gamekeepers?"
00:10:50.000 | "If you think of no one else," Arkad responded,
00:10:54.000 | "If not one of you can think of anyone else, then how about yourselves?"
00:10:59.000 | "Are there any consistent winners with us who hesitate to advise such a source for their incomes?"
00:11:06.000 | His challenge was answered by a series of groans from the rear taken up and spread amid much laughter.
00:11:15.000 | "It would seem we are not seeking good luck in such places as the goddess Frequentz," he continued.
00:11:20.000 | "Therefore let us explore other fields."
00:11:23.000 | "We have not found it in picking up lost wallets."
00:11:26.000 | "Neither have we found it haunting the gaming tables."
00:11:29.000 | "As to the races, I must confess to have lost far more coins there than I have ever won."
00:11:36.000 | "Now, suppose we consider our trades and businesses."
00:11:41.000 | "Is it not natural if we conclude a profitable transaction to consider it not good luck, but a just reward for our efforts?"
00:11:50.000 | "I am inclined to think we may be overlooking the gifts of the goddess."
00:11:54.000 | "Perhaps she really does assist us when we do not appreciate her generosity."
00:11:58.000 | "Who can suggest further discussion?"
00:12:02.000 | Thereupon an elderly merchant arose, smoothing his genteel white robe.
00:12:09.000 | "With thy permission, most honorable Arkad and my friends, I offer a suggestion."
00:12:16.000 | "If, as you have said, we take credit to our own industry and ability for our business success,"
00:12:23.000 | "why not consider the successes we almost enjoyed, but which escaped us?"
00:12:28.000 | "Happenings which would have been most profitable."
00:12:32.000 | "They would have been rare examples of good luck if they had actually happened."
00:12:37.000 | "Because they were not brought to fulfillment, we cannot consider them as our just rewards."
00:12:45.000 | "Surely many men here have such experiences to relate."
00:12:50.000 | "Here is a wise approach," Arkad approved.
00:12:53.000 | "Who among you have had good luck within your grasp, only to see it escape?"
00:12:59.000 | Many hands were raised, among them that of the merchant.
00:13:04.000 | Arkad motioned to him to speak.
00:13:07.000 | "As you suggested this approach, we should like to hear first from you."
00:13:11.000 | "I will gladly relate a tale," he resumed, "that doth illustrate how closely unto a man good luck may approach,"
00:13:20.000 | "and how blindly he may permit it to escape, much to his loss and later regret."
00:13:27.000 | "Many years ago, when I was a young man, just married and well started to earning,"
00:13:33.000 | "my father did come one day and urge most strongly that I enter upon an investment."
00:13:40.000 | "The son of one of his good friends had taken notice of a barren tract of land,"
00:13:46.000 | "not far beyond the outer walls of our city."
00:13:49.000 | "It lay high above the canal where no water could reach it."
00:13:53.000 | "The son of my father's friend devised a plan to purchase this land,"
00:13:58.000 | "build three large water wheels that could be operated by oxen,"
00:14:03.000 | "and thereby raise the life-giving waters to the fertile soil."
00:14:09.000 | "This accomplished, he planned to divide into small tracts,"
00:14:13.000 | "and sell to the residents of the city for herb patches."
00:14:17.000 | "The son of my father's friend did not possess sufficient gold to complete such an undertaking."
00:14:23.000 | "Like myself, he was a young man earning a fair sum."
00:14:27.000 | "His father, like mine, was a man of large family and small means."
00:14:33.000 | "He, therefore, decided to interest a group of men to enter the enterprise with him."
00:14:39.000 | "The group was to comprise twelve, each of whom must be a money-earner,"
00:14:46.000 | "and agree to pay one-tenth of his earnings into the enterprise until the land was made ready for sale."
00:14:53.000 | "All would then share justly in the profits in proportion to their investment."
00:14:59.000 | "Thou, my son," bespoke my father unto me, "art now in thy young manhood."
00:15:05.000 | "It is my deep desire that thou begin the building of a valuable estate for thyself,"
00:15:10.000 | "that thou mayest become respected among men."
00:15:13.000 | "I desire to see thou profit from a knowledge of the thoughtless mistakes of thy father."
00:15:19.000 | "This do I most ardently desire, my father," I replied.
00:15:23.000 | "Then this do I advise."
00:15:27.000 | "From thy earnings keep out one-tenth to put into favorable investments."
00:15:33.000 | "With this one-tenth of thy earnings, and what it will also earn,"
00:15:38.000 | "thou canst, before thou art my age, accumulate for thyself a valuable estate."
00:15:45.000 | "Thy words are words of wisdom, my father."
00:15:48.000 | "Greatly do I desire riches; yet there are many uses to which my earnings are called."
00:15:54.000 | "Therefore do I hesitate to do as thou dost advise."
00:15:58.000 | "I am young; there is plenty of time."
00:16:01.000 | "So I thought at thy age; yet behold, many years have passed, and I have not yet made the beginning."
00:16:08.000 | "We live in a different age, my father; I shall avoid thy mistakes."
00:16:13.000 | "Opportunity stands before thee, my son; it is offering a chance that may lead to wealth."
00:16:19.000 | "I beg of thee, do not delay; go upon the morrow to the son of my friend,"
00:16:25.000 | "and bargain with him to pay ten percent of thy earnings into this investment."
00:16:30.000 | "Go promptly upon the morrow; opportunity waits for no man."
00:16:35.000 | "Today it is here; soon it is gone; therefore delay not."
00:16:41.000 | "In spite of the advice of my father, I did hesitate."
00:16:47.000 | "There were beautiful new robes just brought by the tradesmen from the East; robes of such richness and beauty."
00:16:55.000 | "My good wife and I felt we must each possess one."
00:16:59.000 | "Should I agree to pay one-tenth of my earnings into the enterprise,"
00:17:03.000 | "we must deprive ourselves of these and other pleasures we dearly desired."
00:17:08.000 | "I delayed making a decision until it was too late, much to my subsequent regret."
00:17:15.000 | "The enterprise did prove to be more profitable than any man had prophesied."
00:17:21.000 | "This is my tale, showing how I did permit good luck to escape."
00:17:28.000 | "In this tale we see how good luck waits to come to that man who accepts opportunity,"
00:17:33.000 | commented a swarthy man of the desert.
00:17:36.000 | "To the building of an estate there must always be the beginning."
00:17:40.000 | "That start may be a few pieces of gold or silver which a man diverts from his earnings to his first investment."
00:17:46.000 | "I myself am the owner of many herds."
00:17:49.000 | "The start of my herds I did begin when I was a mere boy,"
00:17:52.000 | "and did purchase with one piece of silver a young calf."
00:17:56.000 | "This, being the beginning of my wealth, was of great importance to me."
00:18:02.000 | "To take his first start to building an estate is as good luck as can come to any man."
00:18:07.000 | "With all men, that first step, which changes them from men who earn from their own labor,"
00:18:14.000 | "to men who draw dividends from the earnings of their gold, is important."
00:18:19.000 | "Some, fortunately, take it when young, and thereby outstrip, in financial success,"
00:18:24.000 | "those who do take it later, or those unfortunate men, like the father of this merchant, who never take it."
00:18:32.000 | "Had our friend, the merchant, taken this step in his early manhood when this opportunity came to him,"
00:18:39.000 | "this day he would be blessed with much more of this world's goods."
00:18:43.000 | "Should the good luck of our friend, the cloth weaver, cause him to take such a step at this time,"
00:18:48.000 | "it will indeed be but the beginning of much greater good fortune."
00:18:54.000 | "Thank you. I like to speak also," a stranger from another country arose.
00:19:00.000 | "I am a Syrian. Not so well do I speak your tongue."
00:19:04.000 | "I wish to call this friend, the merchant, a name."
00:19:08.000 | "Maybe you think it not polite, this name. Yet I wish to call him that."
00:19:13.000 | "But, alas, I not know your word for it."
00:19:18.000 | "If I do call it in Syrian, you will not understand."
00:19:21.000 | "Therefore, please, some good gentleman, tell me that right name you call"
00:19:26.000 | "man who puts off doing those things that might be good for him."
00:19:30.000 | "Procrastinator!" called a voice.
00:19:33.000 | "That's him!" shouted the Syrian, waving his hands excitedly.
00:19:37.000 | "He accepts not opportunity when she comes. He waits."
00:19:43.000 | "He says, 'I have much business right now. By and by I talk to you.'"
00:19:47.000 | "Opportunity! She will not wait for such slow fellow."
00:19:52.000 | "She thinks if a man desires to be lucky, he will step quick."
00:19:57.000 | "Any man who not step quick when opportunity comes, he big procrastinator,"
00:20:04.000 | "like our friend, this merchant."
00:20:07.000 | The merchant arose and bowed good-naturedly in response to the laughter.
00:20:12.000 | "My admiration to thee, stranger within our gates, who hesitates not to speak the truth."
00:20:19.000 | "And now, let us hear another tale of opportunity."
00:20:22.000 | "Who has for us another experience?" demanded Arkad.
00:20:27.000 | "I have," responded a red-robed man of middle age.
00:20:31.000 | "I am a buyer of animals, mostly camels and horses."
00:20:34.000 | "Sometimes I do also buy the sheep and goats."
00:20:37.000 | "The tale I am about to relate will tell truthfully how opportunity came one night when I did least expect it."
00:20:43.000 | "Perhaps for this reason I did let it escape."
00:20:46.000 | "Of this, you shall be the judge."
00:20:49.000 | Returning to the city one evening after a disheartening ten days journey in search of camels,
00:20:54.000 | I was much angered to find the gates of the city closed and locked.
00:20:58.000 | While my slaves spread our tent for the night, which we looked to spend with little food and no water,
00:21:04.000 | I was approached by an elderly farmer who, like ourselves, found himself locked outside.
00:21:10.000 | "Honored sir," he addressed me, "from thy appearance I do judge thee to be a buyer."
00:21:15.000 | "If this be so, much would I like to sell to thee the most excellent flock of sheep just driven up."
00:21:21.000 | "Alas, my good wife lies very sick with the fever."
00:21:24.000 | "I must return with all haste."
00:21:26.000 | "Buy thou my sheep that I and my slaves may mount our camels and travel back without delay."
00:21:32.000 | So dark it was that I could not see his flock, but from the bleating I did know it must be large.
00:21:39.000 | Having wasted ten days searching for camels I could not find, I was glad to bargain with him.
00:21:45.000 | In his anxiety he did set a most reasonable price.
00:21:49.000 | I accepted, well knowing my slaves could drive the flock through the city gates in the morning and sell at a substantial profit.
00:21:56.000 | The bargain concluded, I called my slaves to bring torches that we might count the flock which the farmer declared to contain nine hundred.
00:22:03.000 | I shall not burden you my friends with a description of our difficulty in attempting to count so many thirsty, restless, milling sheep.
00:22:10.000 | It proved to be an impossible task.
00:22:13.000 | Therefore I bluntly informed the farmer I would count them at daylight and pay him then.
00:22:18.000 | "Please, most honorable sir," he pleaded, "pay me but two-thirds of the price tonight that I may be on my way."
00:22:24.000 | "I will leave my most intelligent and educated slave to assist to make the count in the morning."
00:22:29.000 | "He is trustworthy and to him thou canst pay the balance."
00:22:33.000 | But I was stubborn and refused to make payment that night.
00:22:37.000 | Next morning, before I awoke, the city gates opened and four buyers rushed out in search of flocks.
00:22:43.000 | They were most eager and willing to pay high prices because the city was threatened with siege and food was not plentiful.
00:22:50.000 | Nearly three times the price at which he had offered the flock to me did the old farmer receive for it.
00:22:56.000 | Thus was rare good luck allowed to escape.
00:23:00.000 | "Here is a tale most unusual," commented Arkad.
00:23:05.000 | "What wisdom doth it suggest?"
00:23:08.000 | "The wisdom of making a payment immediately when we are convinced our bargain is wise," suggested a venerable saddle-maker.
00:23:16.000 | "If the bargain be good, then dost thou need protection against thy own weaknesses as much as against any other man?"
00:23:23.000 | "We mortals are changeable. Alas, I must say, more apt to change our minds when right than wrong."
00:23:31.000 | "Wrong we are stubborn indeed. Right we are prone to vacillate and let opportunity escape."
00:23:38.000 | "My first judgment is my best. Yet always have I found it difficult to compel myself to proceed with a good bargain when made."
00:23:46.000 | "Therefore, as a protection against my own weaknesses, I do make a prompt deposit thereon."
00:23:52.000 | "This doth save me from later regrets for the good luck that should have been mine."
00:23:57.000 | "Thank you. Again I like to speak."
00:24:00.000 | The Syrian was upon his feet once more.
00:24:03.000 | "These tales much alike. Each time opportunity fly away for same reason. Each time she come to procrastinator, bringing good plan.
00:24:13.000 | Each time they hesitate, not say right now best time I do it quick. How can men succeed that way?"
00:24:21.000 | "Wise are thy words my friend." Responded the buyer.
00:24:26.000 | "Good luck fled from procrastination in both these tales. Yet this is not unusual. The spirit of procrastination is within all men."
00:24:35.000 | "We desire riches. Yet how often when opportunity doth appear before us, that spirit of procrastination from within doth urge various delays in our acceptance."
00:24:47.000 | "In listening to it, we do become our own worst enemies."
00:24:53.000 | "In my younger days, I did not know it by this long word our friend from Syria doth enjoy."
00:24:59.000 | "I did think at first it was my own poor judgment that did cause me loss of many profitable trades."
00:25:05.000 | "Later I did credit it to my stubborn disposition."
00:25:08.000 | "At last I did recognize it for what it was."
00:25:12.000 | "A habit of needless delaying where action was required. Action prompt and decisive."
00:25:19.000 | "How I did hate it when its true character stood revealed."
00:25:23.000 | "With the bitterness of a wild ass hitched to a chariot, I did break loose from this enemy to my success."
00:25:32.000 | "Thank you. I like ask question from Mr. Merchant." The Syrian was speaking.
00:25:38.000 | "You wear fine robes, not like those of poor man. You speak like successful man."
00:25:44.000 | "Tell us, do you listen now when procrastination whispers in your ear?"
00:25:50.000 | "Like our friend the buyer, I also had to recognize and conquer procrastination," responded the merchant.
00:25:56.000 | "To me it proved to be an enemy ever watching and waiting to thwart my accomplishments."
00:26:01.000 | "The tale I did relate is but one of many similar instances I could tell to show how it drove away my opportunities."
00:26:08.000 | "'Tis not difficult to conquer," once understood.
00:26:11.000 | "No man willingly permits the thief to rob his bins of grain."
00:26:15.000 | "Nor does any man willingly permit an enemy to drive away his customers and rob him of his profits."
00:26:20.000 | "When once I did recognize that such acts as these my enemy was committing with determination, I conquered him."
00:26:27.000 | "So must every man master his own spirit of procrastination before he can expect to share in the rich treasures of Babylon."
00:26:35.000 | "What sayest, Arkad?"
00:26:37.000 | "Because thou art the richest man in Babylon, many do proclaim thee to be the luckiest."
00:26:42.000 | "Dost thou agree with me that no man can arrive at a full measure of success until he hath completely crushed the spirit of procrastination within him?"
00:26:51.000 | "It is even as thou sayest," Arkad admitted. "During my long life I have watched generation following generation marching forward along those avenues of trade, science, and learning that lead to success in life."
00:27:04.000 | "Opportunities came to all these men. Some grasped theirs and moved steadily to the gratification of their deepest desires, but the majority hesitated, faltered, and fell behind."
00:27:17.000 | Arkad turned to the cloth weaver.
00:27:19.000 | "Thou didst suggest that we debate good luck. Let us hear what thou now thinkest upon the subject."
00:27:25.000 | "I do see good luck in a different light. I had thought of it as something most desirable that might happen to a man without effort upon his part."
00:27:33.000 | "Now I do realize such happenings are not the sort of thing one may attract to himself."
00:27:38.000 | "From our discussion have I learned that to attract good luck to oneself it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities."
00:27:45.000 | "Therefore, in the future, I shall endeavor to make the best of such opportunities as do come to me."
00:27:52.000 | "Thou hast well grasped the truths brought forth in our discussion," Arkad replied.
00:27:58.000 | "Good luck, we do find, often follows opportunity, but seldom comes otherwise."
00:28:05.000 | "Our merchant friend would have found great good luck had he accepted the opportunity the good goddess did present to him."
00:28:11.000 | "Our friend the buyer likewise would have enjoyed good luck had he completed the purchase of the flock and sold it such a handsome profit."
00:28:18.000 | "We did pursue this discussion to find a means by which good luck could be enticed to us."
00:28:24.000 | "I feel that we have found the way."
00:28:26.000 | "Both the tales did illustrate how good luck follows opportunity."
00:28:31.000 | "Herein lies a truth that many similar tales of good luck won or lost could not change."
00:28:37.000 | "The truth is this, good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity."
00:28:44.000 | "Those eager to grasp opportunities for their betterment do attract the interest of the good goddess."
00:28:50.000 | "She is ever anxious to aid those who please her."
00:28:54.000 | "Men of action please her best."
00:28:57.000 | "Action will lead thee forward to the successes thou dost desire."
00:29:03.000 | "Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck."
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00:29:38.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]