INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATION. 19 



corrector of false impressions, and indicator of just and 

 necessary, though not always perceptible, distinctions. 



4. The beauty of the study itself, considered merely as 

 a speculation, and as a method of exercising certain 

 powers of mind, which might otherwise lie useless. 



5. The necessity of informing the public as to the real 

 nature of the occupation called gambling, and of the 

 class of men who live by it ; the latter being persons 

 who are using knowledge of these principles success- 

 fully, to the daily loss and ruin of those who are not 

 aware of what constitutes unequal play. If such argu- 

 ments be not sufficient to counterbalance a simple asser- 

 tion, to the extent of making it worth while to decide 

 the question by an examination of the subject itself, we 

 may safely dispute the utility of any branch of know- 

 ledge. 



III. That it has a tendency to promote gambling. 

 Those who make this objection generally use the common 

 signification of the term gambling ; and the motives for 

 this pursuit are, in their view, either the pleasure of 

 suspense, acting as a stimulus to a mind weary of its 

 own vacancy, or the desire of gain. On the first notion, 

 the assertion is self-destructive ; it amounts to saying 

 that knowledge which diminishes suspense, by giving a 

 better view of the circumstances, has a tendency to 

 promote gambling, by affording the pleasure arising 

 from suspense. So far as the theory of probabilities 

 bears upon gaming in general, its tendency is to convert 

 games of chance into something more resembling games 

 of skill. Now games of skill are seldom made the ve- 

 hicles of very high play. So far, then, the tendency of 

 our study is to substitute the satisfaction of mental 

 exercise for the pernicious enjoyment of an immoral 

 stimulus. With regard to the desire, of gain, we may 

 safely admit that those who are already actuated by this 

 motive in an undue degree, will sometimes be led to 

 gamble by knowing how to do so properly ; and just in 

 the same manner some of them will be led to make 

 forgery the means of increasing their store, from knowing 



