combined with endless diversity. There are nearer ways to profit
than up the steeps of labour. The prospect of gaining speedily
what is ardently desired, has so far prevailed upon the
passions of mankind, that the peace of life is destroyed by a
general and incessant struggle for riches. It is observed of
gold by an old epigrammatist, that to have is to be in fear; and
to want it is to be in sorrow. There is no condition which is
not disquieted either with the care of gaining or keeping money.

No nation has exceeded ours in the pursuit of gaming. In former
times--and yet not more than 30 or 40 years ago--the passion for
play was predominant among the highest classes.

Genius and abilities of the highest order became its votaries;
and the very framers of the laws against gambling were the first
to fall under the temptation of their breach! The spirit of
gambling pervaded every inferior order of society. The gentleman
was a slave to its indulgence; the merchant and the mechanic were
the dupes of its imaginary prospects; it engrossed the citizen
and occupied the rustic. Town and country became a prey to its
despotism. There was scarcely an obscure village to be found
wherein this bewitching basilisk did not exercise its powers of
fascination and destruction.

Gaming in England became rather a science than an amusement
of social intercourse. The `doctrine of chances' was studied
with an assiduity that would have done honour to better subjects;
and calculations were made on arithmetical and geometrical
principles, to determine the degrees of probability attendant on
games of mixed skill and chance, or even on the fortuitous throws