At first sight, beings and their destinies might seem to us to be scattered haphazard or at least in an arbitrary fashion over the face of the earth; we could very easily suppose that each of us might
equally well have been born earlier or later, at this place or that,
happier or more ill - starred, as though the universe from the
beginning to end of its history formed in space - time a sort of vast flower - bed in which the flowers could be changed about at the whim of the gardener.