"In the Scriptures we do not find games of hazard forbid. The ancient Jews appear to have been entirely ignorant of this kind of recreation, and even the name for it is not to be found in the Old Testament. On the dispersion of the Jews, however, after the Babylonian captivity, they learnt to play from the Greeks and Romans, as may be inferred from the cases of conscience on this subject discussed by the Rabbis. Notwithstanding this, games of hazard are nowhere forbidden in the New Testament, though no tolerance is there shown to any kind of vice. There is, indeed, only one passage that contains the least allusion to play; and even in this, the term--which is metaphorically derived from a game of hazard,--when taken in the worst sense, would only amount to a condemnation of the abuse of play.[322] If in some versions a word,--ραιζειν--used by St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. x, v. 7, has been translated '_jouer_,' it is merely in consequence of the equivocal signification of this word, or perhaps from the original term not being fully understood, which in this place signifies 'to dance,' as is apparent from the passage in the Old Testament to which it alludes, _Exodus_, xxii, 6. From the profound silence of the sacred writers, and from other reasons already advanced, it may, in my judgment, be safely concluded that play considered in itself, and apart from its abuse, is a matter of perfect indifference.[323] "Few persons are so rigid as to condemn absolutely games of every kind; an exception being usually made in favour of those which are determined by skill alone. Most theologians and casuists, however, have pronounced strongly against all games into which hazard enters, as if such were at all times unlawful. The Rabbis, who are of the same opinion, and who even consider them as means of fraud between Jew and Jew, assert that 'a man, during the whole course of his life, should do nothing but devote himself to the study of the law and of wisdom, to the practice of charity, or to some employment or business which may be serviceable to the community.'[324] If this decision be taken literally, it is manifestly absurd, and requires no further notice. Even in putting a reasonable interpretation upon these words, and considering them as condemnatory of such persons as employ themselves in play alone, they still do not apply to play, considered in itself, but merely restrain it to its legitimate use. The Jewish doctors themselves acknowledge that the prohibitions of play in force amongst them, are founded on the regulations of their ancestors; that is, that they are not derived either from the law of Nature, or the positive ordinances of God; but that they depend entirely on the civil law established by those who had the power of making new regulations whenever such might appear to be necessary for the welfare of the state. This is so true, that they in a manner permitted Jews to play at games of hazard with Gentiles: at any