Coincidences, in fact, become the more improbable
in the direct ratio of their importance. We have all, in our own
experience, met with amazing coincidences; but how few of us have ever
gained or lost, been made happy or unhappy, by a coincidence, as
distinct from a chance! It is not precisely probable that three
brothers, who have separated in early life, and have not heard of one
another for twenty years, should find themselves seated side by side at
an Italian _table-d'hote_; yet such coincidences have occurred, and are
creditable enough so long as nothing particular comes of them. But if a
dramatist were to make these three brothers meet in Messina on the eve
of the earthquake, in order that they might all be killed, and thus
enable his hero (their cousin) to succeed to a peerage and marry the
heroine, we should say that his use of coincidence was not strictly
artistic. A coincidence, in short, which coincides with a crisis is
thereby raised to the _n_th power, and is wholly inacceptable in serious
art.
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