I am much pleased with the following thought. "The ancients," says the author of _Amusemens Sérieux et Comiques_, "assembled to see their gladiators kill one another; they classed this among their _games_! What barbarity! But are we less barbarous, we who call a _game_ an assembly--who meet at the faro table, where the actors themselves confess they only meet to destroy one another?" In both these cases the philosopher may perhaps discover their origin in the listless state of _ennui_ requiring an immediate impulse of the passions, and very inconsiderate as to the fatal means which procure the desired agitation. The most ancient treatise by a modern on this subject, is said to be by a French physician, one Eckeloo, who published in 1569, _De Aleâ, sive de curandâ Ludendi in Pecuniam cupiditate_, that is, "On games of chance, or a cure for gaming." The treatise itself is only worth notice from the circumstance of the author being himself one of the most inveterate gamblers; he wrote this work to convince himself of this folly. But in spite of all his solemn vows, the prayers of his friends, and his own book perpetually quoted before his face, he was a great gamester to his last hour! The same circumstance happened to Sir John Denham, who also published a tract against gaming, and to the last remained a gamester. They had not the good sense of old Montaigne, who gives the reason why he gave over gaming. "I used to like formerly games of chance with cards and dice; but of that folly I have long been cured; merely because I found that whatever good countenance I put on when I lost, I did not feel my vexation the less." Goldsmith fell a victim to this madness. To play any game well requires serious study, time, and experience. If a literary man plays deeply, he will be duped even by shallow fellows, as well as by professed gamblers. _Dice_, and that little pugnacious animal the _cock_, are the chief instruments employed by the numerous nations of the East, to agitate their minds and ruin their fortunes; to which the Chinese, who are desperate gamesters, add the use of _cards_. When all other property is played away, the Asiatic gambler scruples not to stake his _wife_ or his _child_, on the cast of a die, or the courage and strength of a martial bird. If still unsuccessful, the last venture he stakes is _himself_.