GAMBLING SUPERSTITIONS. 377 



that chance. He has therefore been swindled out of 

 ten pounds. And in the long run, if he laid several 

 hundreds of wagers of the same amount, and on the 

 same plan, he would inevitably lose on the average 

 about ten pounds per venture. 



In conclusion, I may thus present the position of 

 the gambler who is not ready to secure Fortune as his 

 ally by trickery : If he meets gamblers who are not 

 equally honest, he is not trying his luck against theirs, 

 but, at the best (as De Morgan puts it) only a part of 

 his against more than the whole of theirs : if he 

 meets players as honest as himself he must, neverthe- 

 less, as Lord Holland said to Selwyn, ' be in earnest 

 and without irony en verite le serviteur tres humble 

 des evenements, in truth the very humble servant of 

 events.' 



(From the Cornhill Magazine for June 1872.) 



COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



EVERY one is familiar with the occasional occurrence 

 of coincidences, so strange considered abstractly 

 that it appears difficult to regard them as due to mere 

 casualty. The mind is dwelling on some person or 

 event, and suddenly a circumstance happens which is 

 associated in some altogether unexpected, and as it 

 were improbable, manner with that person or event. 

 A scheme has been devised which can only fail if some 

 utterly unlikely series of events should occur, and pre- 



