He spoke with fervor, and Henry saw how strong he was and wondered not at his great success.
"I don't often resort to figures of speech," Witherspoon continued, "but even the most practical man feels sometimes that illustration is a necessity.

Words are the trademarks of the goods stored in the mind, and a flashy expression proclaims the flimsy trinket." Was his unwonted indulgence in wine at dinner playing rhetorical tricks with his mind?
"I spoke just now of the partial goddess of fortune," the merchant continued, "in the hope that I might impress you with a deplorable truth.

Fortune is vested with a peculiar discrimination.

It appears more often to favor the unjust than the just.

Ability and a life of constant wooing do not always win success, for luck, the factotum of fortune, often bestows in one minute a success which a life-time of stubborn toil could not have achieved.