De Gebelin declares that "the Tarots could only be the outcome of the work of sages," and that "these cards were intended for the use of initiates and not for gamblers." He alone pierces the mystery of the origin of the Tarots, while the others content themselves with supposing that cards sprang in their present form into use precisely as Minerva emerged fully equipped from Jove's head; they write that cards had no existence, no form, and no record, previous to those accorded to them about the thirteenth century. To call an antagonist "a dreamer" or "a fool" is an unconvincing form of argument. To declare that a proposition is untrue because it is presented for the first time and has not been looked into is absurd; so to-day, over one hundred and twenty-five years after Court de Gebelin spread his pearls before the uncomprehending students of Playing Card lore, it may be well to recapitulate his theories and study his conclusions with minds opened by latter-day revelations of the ancient rites, mysteries, and cults, and not to reject them without investigation. CHAPTER X COURT AND POINT CARDS WITH FRENCH PIPS As early as 1656, according to the writers of the day, a pack of cards was called in England, "a pair of cards," which was evidently derived from the Italian, Paio, as the combined Atout and numbered cards, or the two volumes of the book of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, were occasionally called in Italy. The importation of cards was prohibited in England in 1463, by Act 11, Henry VII, as local productions were to be encouraged, so foreign cards are seldom found in England. Sometimes the collection of fifty-two cards, adopted from the French, was called "a stock," notably in the play of "The Three Ladies of London," where one of them says: "Now, all the cards in the Stock are dealt about." But the word is now only applied when it is wished to designate those cards left after a hand has been dealt, although they are more commonly called "the widow," or "the forsaken one." In Queen Elizabeth's day, a pack of cards was called "a bunch," and Shakespeare terms them "a deck," which designation is still used in Scotland and in parts of the United States. The designs on the cards representing the numbers are technically termed pips, or peeps, perhaps from the seeds of apples, pears, and oranges, that are so called in England; and they are also called spots.