THE TURF 189 



that if these two persons ever heard of 

 fractional arithmetic, they could know no 

 more of it than of the division of logarithms. 

 Nevertheless, the probability of events can 

 only be found by such help : and even then, 

 as far as racing is concerned, although the 

 adept in this part of the mathematician's art 

 may be able to ascertain the precise odds 

 that may be given or received, so as to 

 provide against loss, yet he will find that, to 

 be certain to win, advantage must be taken 

 of all chances more favourable than the 

 precise odds. In fact, it will be by advan- 

 tageous bets on particular events, that he 

 will have a balance in his favour at the 

 winding-up of his book, and it would avail 

 him little to work for no profit. The main 



have been indebted, for this clever expedient, to some 

 learned Cantab, who may have told him, on the 

 authority of Diogenes Laertius, that the bestowing on 

 pebbles an artificial value was even older than Solon, 

 the great reformer of the Athenian commonwealth. 

 Eschines, in his oration for the crown, indeed, speaking 

 of balanced accounts, says, ' the pebbles were cleared 

 away, and none left ' ; and his rival, Demosthenes, 

 strikes his balance by the help of counters. Hence the 

 origin of the word calculate, from calculus, a pebble ; 

 and in popular language of the present day, to clear 

 scores, is to settle accounts. 



