_Third._--Man is the creature of circumstances. Society is an organism conditioned by its environments. Every nation must complete a cycle of infancy, youth, manhood and old age. Briefly, history is a science--an unbroken chain of causes and effects throughout the ages. Volition, so-called, is delusive and shadowy--more apparent than real. At best, we but yield to the greatest pressure of temperament or motive. Human nature, in a word, is the result of inevitable tendencies. The passions are inherent and cannot be violently uprooted. Character is innate and not subject to arbitrary reform by extrinsic force. Here, as elsewhere, evolution is the law of existence. While our appetites and propensities may be educated, they can never be obliterated. Social and political philosophy have repeatedly deduced these truths from the history of man. In the field of reform officialism has been repudiated by the greatest thinkers. Legislation, therefore, should conform to the light of experience and the dictates of science. _Ergo_: in the future, as in the past and present, the gaming passion will everywhere assert itself, despite repressive legislation, however severe. _Fourth._--Sumptuary statutes are futile and impertinent. They are to-day and ever have been indefensible and impolitic. Such laws are an infringement upon individual rights and an insult to human nature. Officious and pharisaical legislation in the province of morals and taste should be abandoned once and forever. _Per se_, to gamble is neither a sin nor a crime. For the law to punish the practice is futile and unwarranted. _Conclusion._--An enlightened age demands the overthrow of an effete administrative policy. In the realm of morals, let that be wisely guided which the law cannot prevent. Gambling, with certain conditions, should be licensed and placed under the surveillance of a police. The Worship of Fortuna. [Illustration] CHAPTER I. The Worship of Fortuna.