Horse a Noble Beast, no doubt--Races prohibited by Civil Law--Revived under new name--Agricultural Fair, and what may be seen thereat--Ludicrous side of things--Twenty gawky Boys with their Colts--Strange Man and Horse--Science--Victory--The Effect on gawky Boys--Reasons against Horse-racing--Expense--Bets--Fraud--Riot-- Villainy of All Sorts--How the thing is done, and the People cheated--Quotation from Thomas Hughes, M.P., Page 63 CHAPTER V. BASE BALL. The Ancient and Honorable Way--Latter-day Absurdities--"Great National Game"--Clubs; how formed--Science--Professional Players and their Salaries--Expenses--The Exotics challenge the Cupids--Game described--Victory--Supper--Speeches--Glowing Account in Papers--Pain-killers--Bubble must Burst--Decay--Reasons against the Game as now conducted--Foolish Exhibition--Bets--Cheating--Waste of Money--No Good Result of any sort, 77 CHAPTER VI. DANCING. "Dances not all alike"--Bad and Worse--"The German"--Mere motion not wrong--The Old Gentleman and his Exercises--Imaginary Scene in "Happy Family"--REASONS AGAINST DANCING: 1. Lacks the Elements of True Recreation; 2. Has a Bad Historic Name; 3. Inconsistent with Piety; 4. Leads to Undesirable Associations--Evil in many ways, Page 89 CHAPTER VII. CARDS, CHESS, AND BILLIARDS. Cards an Old Game--Origin, Asiatic--History--Horne Tooke and George III--Author confesses his Want of Knowledge--Cards the Gambler's Tools--Game adds nothing to Mind or Heart--Dangerous to some--Betting--Reasons against Card-playing--CHESS also Ancient--Origin--Play a Laborious Nothing--Wastes Time--Wastes Brain-power--Hinders Mental Culture--BILLIARDS--Big Marbles--How Played--Women can never become Experts, and Why--Poor Affair generally, 105 CHAPTER VIII. NOVELS AND NOVEL-READING. Definition of a Novel--A Vice of the Age--FOUR MAXIMS: 1. No Fiction if Little Leisure; 2. Only the Best; 3. Fiction to be but Small Part; 4. If any Harm results, Stop at Once--SEVEN REASONS AGAINST COMMON NOVEL-READING: 1. Wastes Time; 2. Injures the Intellect; 3. Unfits for Real Life; 4. Creates Overgrowth of the Passions; 5. Produces Mental Intoxication; 6. Lessens the Horror of Crime and Wrong; 7. Wars with all Piety--Disciplinary Rule, 121 CHAPTER IX. SOCIAL GATHERINGS. No List of Recreations Furnished, and Why--One Suggestion, nevertheless--The Indolent have No Claim--The Busy need Recreation--The Sedentary need Air and Sunbeams--The Active want Books--The Solitary require Society--Talk the Universal Recreation--Social Life--Grand "Party"--More Excellent Way suggested--What the Fitzshoddies Think--Mrs. F.'s Disappointment--Mr. F. Doubts--Miss F. Trembles--The Reform Unpopular--The Author Despondent in regard to it, yet Firm in the Faith, Page 153 CHAPTER X.