94 JEROME CARDAN. 



evil that he finds, and sums up by saying that he writes 

 a treatise upon gambling, though it is a bad thing, because 

 it had become (as, indeed, in those days it almost had 

 become upon all ground much afflicted by the tread of 

 armies) universal and, as it were, natural to man. He 

 writes of it, therefore, as a physician writes of an in- 

 curable disease, not praising it, but showing how to make 

 the best of the affliction 1 . 



Then arises a discussion of the furniture of dice-playing 

 namely, the tables, and the bone marked upon four 

 sides, or the cube marked upon six. Then follows a 

 chapter upon the casting with one, two, and three dice, 

 pointing out probabilities. The rest of the treatise in- 

 cludes a consideration of the morals of dice and the 

 rules of honour among gamblers, as, says Cardan, there 

 are laws also among thieves 2 . It contains also an account 

 of all games played with French, Spanish, German, and 

 Italian cards, including a description of the cards then 

 commonly in use. Cheating appears to have been more 

 common, as it was more easy, with cards than with dice. 

 Among the tricks that are exposed is one that consisted 



1 " Etsi tota Alea mala esset cum tamen ob ludentium multitudinem 

 quasi naturalis sit ; ob id etiam velut de insanabilibus morbis a Medico 

 tractandum fuit; namque in omne malo est minimum malum, in omni 

 dedeco minimum dedecus, in omni flagitio minimum flagitium." Lib. 

 de Ludo Aleec, cap. v. 



2 "Sunt enim in malis rebus suse leges; velut et latromim et pira- 

 toruncu" Ibid. cap. xxix. 



