tion, both on taste and feeling, to prefer to them the frivolous pleasures of cardplaying Contrived To fill the void of an unfurnished brain, and The reason has been demanded, why chess, as well as cards, should not be prohibited by the objectors to fashionable amusements. The reply is at once easy satisfactory. The two amusements, both in their nature and tendency, are essentially different. The game of cards is frivolous in itself, and injurious in its effects. This cannot be said of chess. It is a game of science, and the mental effort it demands, is, in a high degree, manly. It combines many of the advantages of mathematical study, tending to discipline the mind, by accustoming it to efforts of abstraction, and severe processes of thought. Without hesitation it may be said, that some results to the sex of a valuable kind might be anticipated, could young ladies be induced to forsake the card-table, and devote some portion of the time, which they are accustomed to occupy in the idle amusement of cards, to the highly intellectual and deeply interesting pleasures of the chess-board. Chess, moreover, unless by confirmed gamblers, is never played at for money. To win the game is ever deemed a sufficient remuneration for the toil of contest, and the successful competitor is never reduced to the degrading task of gathering up the miserable pittances, which have been produced from the pockets of others. On the score of temper, also, the game of chess is infinitely preferable. "No man can lose a game of chess without perceiving the wrong move or moves, which led to that termination; his loss is the effect of his own misconduct, which might have been avoided had he adopted a different course, and which he was at full liberty to have done; he can blame no one but himself; he feels no angry, envious, or malicious passion excited; he cannot embroil himself in any quarrel with his friend, because at starting they possessed equal advantages; and it would be the most absurd thing in the world to quarrel with another because he has made a better use than his neighbour of the opportunities equally afforded to each. But in other games the case is greatly altered; it is a chance whether the players are in any degree placed under equal advantages; one becomes liable to the feelings of envy, the other to those of triumph; the game is proceeded with; and as the effects are in a great degree, if not wholly, incidental, the passions of hope, fear, distrust, anxiety, and various others, are continually excited and torment the mind. I am now speaking where no stake or only a trifling one is played for. If large sums are betted, all these evils are awfully magnified, and probably ruin attends one of the parties. If I am in any degree a correct reasoner, whatever tends to provoke anger, to inflame our corrupt passions, to encourage selfishness, and steel the heart against feeling for the disappointments, losses, and distresses of others, must be wrong." Numerous and plausible, therefore, as may be the arguments in support of this popular amusement, it nevertheless appears to be indulged in at the expense of what is far more important to character and happiness than the trifling evils which it is designed to avoid. The card-table may secure the social party against the miseries of insipidity, and the horrors of ennui; it may preserve pride from mortification, and maintain the punctilios of artificial politeness; but these benefits are produced at an expense far exceeding their value. The mind is reduced to an idle and contemptible employment, and the heart is subjected to a severe and dan * Confessions of a Gamester. gerous test of its best and most amiable feelings. When money, moreover, is staked at the card-table, the charge of direct criminality is alleged against the amusement. The argument is constructed upon the same ground on which gaming in general is unlawful-there is an improper employment of money. Wealth is an important instrument of our own and others' good; its possession, therefore, involves a moral responsibility. It is a valuable talent committed to our trust, for the employment of which we are amenable to Him who has placed it in our hands. It must be disbursed under the direction of the judgment, and with the conscientious design of procuring either our own or others' good. We may probably feel ourselves at liberty to purchase an article of luxury; our conscientious scruples are removed by the consideration, that the article is the product of some industrious hand, which needs the money we expend. Let this remark be |