Though in 1393 cards might have been but little known and seldom played at, except by the higher classes, the game in a short time appears to have become common; for in an edict of the provost of Paris, dated 22d of January, 1397, working people are forbid to play at tennis, bowls, dice, _cards_, or nine-pins, on working days. From the omission of cards in an ordonnance of Charles V, dated 1369, forbidding certain games and addressed to all the seneschals, baillies, provosts, and other officers of the kingdom, it may be safely concluded that if cards were known in France in 1369, the game was by no means so common as in 1397. Duchesne indeed says that it is between 1369 and 1397, a period of twenty-eight years, that the invention of Playing Cards, or at least their introduction into France, ought to be placed. Cards having been presented at the court of France for the amusement of the king, and prohibited in the city of Paris, either as too good or too bad for the amusement of working people, appear forthwith to have become fashionable; but, besides the recommendations alluded to, the game possesses charms of its own which could scarcely fail to render it a favorite with gamesters of all classes, as soon as its principles should be known.[94] To ladies and gentlemen who might play, merely as a relaxation from the more serious business of hunting and hawking, dressing and dining, no game could be more fascinating; while to those who might play for gain, what other game could be more tempting? The great infirmity of human nature, with the noble as well as the ignoble, as old stories plainly show, is the too eager desire to obtain money, or money's worth, in a short time and at little cost; and, hence, to risk a certain sum on the chance of obtaining a greater, whether at dice, cards, state lotteries, or art-union little-goes: in the latter, indeed, under the prudent direction of what may be called "handicap" legislators,--from their always coming out strong towards the end of the session, like the beaten horses for a handicap at the end of a race week,--the spirit of gaming is refined, and made subservient to the purposes of pure charity and the promotion of the fine arts. He who devised the game of cards, as now usually played, appears to have had a thorough perception of at least two of the weak points of human nature; for next to man's trust in his "luck," in all games of chance, is his confidence in himself in all games of skill. The shuffling, cutting, and dealing at cards, together with the chance afforded by the turn-up of the trump, place the novice, in his own conceit, on a par with the experienced gamester; who, on the other hand, is apt to underrate his opponent's chance, from his over-confidence in his own skill.