modern life; but Gaming is a _UNIVERSAL_ thing--the
characteristic of the human biped all the world over.

[2] It appeared originally, I think, in the Harleian
Miscellany. I have taken the liberty to re-touch it here and

there, with the view to improvement.
The determination of events by `lot' was a practice frequently

resorted to by the Israelites; as, by lot it was determined which
of the goats should be offered by Aaron; by lot the land of

Canaan was divided; by lot Saul was marked out for the Hebrew
kingdom; by lot Jonah was discovered to be the cause of the

storm. It was considered an appeal to Heaven to determine the
points, and was thought not to depend on blind chance, or that

imaginary being called Fortune, who,
`----With malicious joy,

Promotes, degrades, delights in strife,
And makes a _LOTTERY_ of life.'

The Hindoo Code--a promulgation of very high antiquity--
denounces gambling, which proves that there were desperate

gamesters among the Hindoos in the earliest times. Men gamed,
too, it would appear, after the example set them by the gods, who

had gamesters among them. The priests of Egypt assured Herodotus
that one of their kings visited alive the lower regions called

infernal, and that he there joined a gaming party, at which he
both lost and won.[3] Plutarch tells a pretty Egyptian story to

the effect, that Mercury having fallen in love with Rhea, or the
Earth, and wishing to do her a favour, gambled with the Moon, and

won from her every seventieth part of the time she illumined the
horizon--all which parts he united together, making up _FIVE

DAYS_, and added them to the Earth's year, which had previously
consisted of only 360 days.[4]

[3] Herod. 1. ii.
[4] Plutarch, _De Isid. et Osirid._

But not only did the gods play among themselves on Olympus, but
they gambled with mortals. According to Plutarch, the priest of

the temple of Hercules amused himself with playing at dice with
the god, the stake or conditions being that if he won he should

obtain some signal favour, but if he lost he would procure a
beautiful courtesan for Hercules.[5]

[5] _In Vita Romuli_.
By the numerous nations of the East dice, and that pugnacious

little bird the cock, have been and are the chief instruments
employed to produce a sensation--to agitate their minds and to

ruin their fortunes. The Chinese have in all times, we suppose,
had cards--hence the absurdity of the notion that they were

`invented' for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, in his
`lucid intervals,' as is constantly asserted in every collection

of historic facts. The Chinese invented cards, as they invented
almost everything else that administers to our social and

domestic comfort.[6]
[6] Observations on Cards, by Mr Gough, in Archaeologia, vol.

viii. 1787.
The Asiatic gambler" target="_blank" title="n.赌徒">gambler is desperate. When all other property is

played away, he scruples not to stake his wife, his child, on the
cast of a die or on the courage of the martial bird before

mentioned. Nay more, if still unsuccessful, the last venture he
makes is that of his limbs--his personal liberty--his life--which

he hazards on the caprice of chance, and agrees to be at the
mercy, or to become the slave, of his fortunate antagonist.

The Malayan, however, does not always tamely submit to this last
stroke of fortune. When reduced to a state of desperation by

repeated ill-luck, he loosens a certain lock of hair on his head,
which, when flowing down, is a sign of war and destruction. He

swallows opium or some intoxicating liquor, till he works himself
up into a fit of frenzy, and begins to bite and kill everything

that comes in his way; whereupon, as the aforesaid lock of hair
is seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at and destroy him as

quickly as possible--he being considered no better than a mad
dog. A very rational conclusion.

Of course the Chinese are most eager gamesters, or they would not
have been capable of inventing those dear, precious killers of

time--cards, the EVENING solace of so many a household in the
most respectable and `proper' walks of life. Indeed, they play

night and day--until they have lost all they are worth, and then
they usually go--and hang themselves.

If we turn our course northward, and penetrate the regions of ice
perpetual, we find that the driven snow cannot effectually quench

the flames of gambling. They glow amid the regions of the
frozen pole. The Greenlanders gamble with a board, which has a

finger-piece upon it, turning round on an axle; and the person to
whom the finger points on the stopping of the board, which is

whirled round, `sweeps' all the `stakes' that have been
deposited.

If we descendthence into the Western hemisphere, we find that
the passion for gambling forms a distinguishing feature in the

character of all the rude natives of the American continent.
Just as in the East, these savages will lose their aims (on which

subsistence depends), their apparel, and at length their personal
liberty, on games of chance. There is one thing, however, which

must be recorded to their credit--and to our shame. When they
have lost their `all,' they do not follow the example of our

refined gamesters. They neither murmur nor repine. Not a
fretful word escapes them. They bear the frowns of fortune with

a philosophic composure.[7]
[7] Carver, _Travels_.

If we cross the Atlantic and land on the African shore, we find
that the `everlasting Negro' is a gambler" target="_blank" title="n.赌徒">gambler--using shells as dice--

and following the practice of his `betters' in every way. He
stakes not only his `fortune,' but also his children and liberty,

which he cares very little about, everywhere, until we incite him
to do so--as, of course, we ought to do, for every motive `human

and divine.'
There is no doubt, then, that this propensity is part and parcel

of `the unsophisticated savage.' Let us turn to the eminently
civilized races of antiquity--the men whose example we have more

or less followed in every possible matter, sociality, politics,
religion--they were all gambler" target="_blank" title="n.赌徒">gamblers, more or less. Take the grand

prototypes of Britons, the Romans of old. That gamesters they
were! And how gambling recruited the ranks of the desperadoes

who gave them insurrectionary trouble! Catiline's `army of
scoundrels,' for instance. `Every man dishonoured by

dissipation,' says Sallust, `who by his follies or losses at the
gaming table had consumed the inheritance of his fathers, and all

those who were sufferers by such misery, were the friends of this
perverse man.' Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Cicero, and other

writers, attest the fact of Roman gambling most eloquently, most
indignantly.

The Romans had `lotteries,' or games of chance, and some of
their prizes were of great value, as a good estate and slaves, or

rich vases; others of little value, as vases of common earth, but
of this more in the sequel.

Among the Gothic kings who, in the fulness of time and
accomplishments, `succeeded' to that empire, we read of a

Theodoric, `a wise and valiant prince,' who was `great lover of
dice;' his solicitude in play was only for victory; and his

companions knew how to seize the moment of his success, as
consummate courtiers, to put forward their petitions and to make

their requests. `When I have a petition to prefer,' says one of
them, `I am easily beaten in the game that I may win my

cause.'[8] What a clever contrivance! But scarcely equal to
that of the _GREAT_ (in politeness) Lord Chesterfield, who, to