124 EULOGY ON AMPERE. 



where the chances are equal, and where skill is not required, the pro- 

 fessional player may be sure, in due time, of certain ruin — a fact estab- 

 lished beyond dispute by the formulas of Ampere. 



The empty words "good luck," "chance," "lucky star," "lucky run," 

 can neither hasten nor retard the execution of a sentence pronounced in 

 the name of algebraic authority. 



There is a school, calling itself the utilitarian, which has inscribed 

 on its banners three formidable words, A quoi honf "Of what use?" 

 and which, in its bitter warfare against what it calls material and intel- 

 lectual superfluities, would commit to the flames our fine libraries and 

 splendid museums, and reduce us to the necessity of eating acorns as 

 our fathers did. These adepts would now ask me, How many gamblers 

 have Ampere's calculations reclaimed? 



I confess now, in advance, with all humility, and without intending 

 to reflect upon the memory of our colleague, that the work just analyzed 

 in detail has not, perhaps, reclaimed one single individual infected 

 with the inveterate mania for play. The remedy has not taken effect ; 

 but can it be proved it has often been applied? Have there ever been 

 professional players sufiiciently versed in algebra to understand the 

 formulas of M. Ampere, and to appreciate their perfect accuracy I You 

 would be sadly mistaken, too, if you fancied that the certainty of losing 

 would deter every one from gambling. My doubt seems paradoxical, 

 certainly; I will endeavor to justify it. 



Some years since in Paris, I made the acquaintance of a distinguished 

 foreigner, of great wealth, but in wretched health, whose life, save a few 

 hours given to repose, was regularly divided between the most interest- 

 ing scientific researches and gambling. It was a source of great regret 

 to me that this learned experimentalist should devote the half of so 

 valuable a life to a course so little in harmony with an intellect whose 

 wonderful powers called forth the admiration of the world around him. 

 Unfortunately there occurred fluctuations of loss and gain, momentarily 

 balancing each other, which led him to conclude that the advantages 

 enjoyed by the bank were neither so assured nor considerable as to pre- 

 clude his winning largely through a run of luck. The analytical formu- 

 las of probabilities offering a radical means, the only one perhaps of 

 dissipating this illusion, I proposed, the number of the games and the 

 stakes being given, to determine in advance, in my study, the amount, not 

 merely of the loss of a day, nor that of a week, but of each quarter. 

 The calculation was found so regularly to agree with the corresponding 

 diminution of the bank-notes in the foreigner's pocket-book that a doubt 

 could no longer be entertained. 



Did the learned gentleman renounce gambling forever? No, gentlemen ; 

 for a fortnight only. He declared that my calculations had completely 

 convinced him; that he would no longer be the ignorant tiibutary 

 of the gaming-houses of Paris; that he would continue the same 

 kind of life, but without the mad excitement of hope and fear that led 



