Toivn and Countrij DeUglds 



will forgive me for irreverently quoting from 

 " The Excursion ; Despondency Corrected " — 



"If tired of systems, each in its degree 

 Substantial, and all cruml)ling in their turn, 

 Let him build systems of his own, and smile 

 At the fond work, demolished with a touch/' 



If you are a heaven-born gambler (I confess 

 to some incongruity in the phrase) — one of 

 those blighted Bonapartes whose star occa- 

 sionally illumines the monotony of the Casino 

 sky — you will know how to take fortune at the 

 flood, or, what is even more important, to 

 remember an engagement elsewhere when luck 

 is against you. But such a genius is rare ; 

 nascitur 7ion fit. 



George Selwyn, in repentant old age, de- 

 scribed play as one of the greatest consumers 

 of time, fortune, constitution, and thinkino-. 

 If history tells the truth, he had enjoyed every 

 opportunity of knowing. Yet putting aside 

 fortune and constitution, there are some who 

 reckon the killing of time as one of its merits 

 and many who do not want to think. No one 

 seems to have discovered a sound basis for 

 condemning gambling on moral grounds. Its 

 excess is no doubt pernicious ; but that may be 



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