M. la Croix says: "The Germans were the first to apply cards to instructing young persons, by endeavouring to teach them different sciences illustrated by the cards, that had printed on them historical tales, sums of arithmetic, heraldic devices, astronomical symbols, bars of music, or quotations from the poets, with the pips displayed in the corners to deceive people into imagining that they were enjoying a play, when in reality they were being gently led along the paths of learning, and that this idea seems to have found favour in other countries, particularly in Great Britain and France." In this list of countries that adapted cards to purposes of instruction might have been included China and Japan, had M. la Croix studied the games of those nations. The latter country has two packs that are devoted to quotations from the poets, or historical tales. Numerous specimens of these educational cards are now to be found in all card collections, although to those who regard Playing Cards as part of the cult of Mercury these instructive bits of pasteboard are no more related to the Tarots than are advertisements or school books. There are some puritanical persons who regard Playing Cards with horror, and will not touch "the devil's picture books" that display the symbols of Hearts, Clubs, etc.; but these same people adopt with avidity these educational cards that sometimes have the pips slyly tucked into a corner. Or, perhaps, they use cards that have numbers printed on them to indicate the pips, with other marks to show the suits and the court cards, so these good people play Grabouche, Pinocle, Bezique, Flip, and other games that are, in truth, recognised as games of chance. In 1507 a set of instructive cards was invented by Dr. Thomas Muruer, the celebrated opponent of Martin Luther. The pack was printed at Cracow and called _Chartiludui Logicae_, and these were intended for the use of the inventor's pupils in the art of reasoning. At first people were delighted with them and their novelty, and then they turned against this method of instruction and threatened to burn the doctor for inventing them. This pack was an imitation of the Tarots, and was composed of ten logical cards with sixteen suits of emblem cards, the pips being the German Bells, Acorns, Leaves, and Hearts, with additional symbols of crayfish, scorpions, etc. When Louis XIV was eight years old, it was necessary to educate him, but he was a dull and reluctant pupil, so Cardinal Mazarin invented some "instruction cards" for the youthful king that illustrated fables and proved attractive to others besides the agrammatist. A little later, some cards depicting the history of France were designed by the artist Desmarits, who, finding that they were received with favour, followed them with a geographical set, and then with one called harlequin, in which the figures of well-known persons were grotesquely dressed.