amusements--also, concerns in lotteries--and certain transactions in the
stocks--they forbid also all wagers, and speculations by a monied
stake--the peculiar wisdom of the latter prohibition, as collected from
the history of the origin of some of the amusements of the times_.


When we consider the depravity of heart, and the misery and ruin, that
are frequently connected with gaming, it would be strange indeed, if the
Quakers, as highly professing Christians, had not endeavoured to
extirpate it from their own body.

No people, in fact, have taken more or more effectual measures for its
suppression. They have proscribed the use of all games of chance, and of
all games of skill, that are connected with chance in any manner. Hence
_cards_, _dice_, _horse-racing_, _cock-fighting_, and all the
amusements, which come under this definition, are forbidden.

But as there are certain transactions, independently of these
amusements, which are equally connected with hazard, and which
individuals might convert into the means of moral depravity and temporal
ruin, they have forbidden these also, by including them under the
appellation of gaming.

Of this description are concerns in the lottery, from which all Quakers
are advised to refrain. These include the purchase of tickets, and all
insurance upon the same.

In transactions of this kind there is always a monied stake, and the
issue is dependent upon chance. There is of course the same fascinating
stimulus as in cards, or dice, arising from the hope of gain. The mind