60 



epistles tu students. no. iv. 

 Young Gentlemen : 



There remains of your matriculation oath " all kinds of gam- 

 bling" together with " indecent, disorderly behavior." Before the au- 

 thorities of the institution and in the presence of the Searcher of hearts 

 you promise, on your truth and honor, to abstain from all kinds of gam- 

 bling. " Play for something possessing value, or for money which is 

 the representative of it, is gambling, in a definition sufficiently explicit 

 for our purposes. Generically considered, it is a unit. There are vari- 

 ous methods or instruments which are employed in play, and by which 

 men gamble. Amongst these may be enumerated cards, dice, chess, 

 backgammon, &c. The passion for play is one that is well understood. 

 ft has been so often developed and thrown before the observation of 

 men, in its phases, as to have made it familiar to every student of the 

 passions. 



Its violent, furious, indomitable character, when formed, has often 

 been manifested. The period of life which may be regarded as most 

 exposed to this vice is youtli. The period which needs most to be 

 guarded is youth. Incapable of counting the cost, or of having " res- 

 pect to the end," the young may insensibly glide from a play of amuse- 

 ment to one of a small stake, and then to the daring spirit of cupidity 

 whicli risks every thing on the chances of a game. The habit of gam- 

 bling easily formed, is broken with the utmost difficulty. Started in 

 early life, it groAvs with us and cleaves to its victim with unyielding per- 

 tinacity. It forebodes evil and only evil. The fondness for play, most 

 absorbing in its cliaracter, disqualifies the mind for all active effort. Jt 

 awakens the expectation of gain, and affluence without labor. It spurs 

 on to risks which incurred are followed often by the most fatal results. 

 It is the fruitful source of crimes than which none blacker are found in 

 the catalogue of human guilt. It is associated with deception, fraud, 

 theft, robbery, murder, and has often, very often, been the cause of self- 

 slaughter. The gambler and the seducer, the gaml)ler and the licentious, 

 the gambler and the profane, the gambler and the Sal)bath-brcaker are 

 often found in the same person. So odious is this vice that it hides it- 

 self from the public gaze. The man who practices it, wishes it to be 

 concealed. Tlie word, that designates it, is associated with the most re- 

 volting ideas. 



The gambler is despised, rejected of men, and the wealth, which he 

 may possess, cannot wash away his hideous moral deformity, but it re- 

 mains in the just judgment of right thinking and virtuous men. If this 

 estimate should ai)pcar di:?proporlioned to the oflcucc, it will easily pre- 



