406 
An Essay on the Game of Billiards, 
[Dec, 
that point with facility and exactness, as far as circumstances will permit, the 
judgment likewise should be free from blame. But to arrive at eminence in the 
game, so much depends upon execution, for the final issue ; and more particularly 
on the address of the back-hand, (as before noticed,) to which is committed so 
large a share, that it is the grand desideratum of the whole, and the judgment 
feeble and of little value without it: besides, the doors of judgment are always 
open to receive, and its dispensations not confined to any period of life ; but the 
executive manner is of more limited access; and if not acquired early, while the 
muscles and sinews are yet tender, flexible, and may be formed to the game, it is 
hopeless, with any assiduity, to court it afterwards, when the stubbornness of age 
renders them callous to impressions they have not been accustomed to, and the 
affections of younger days fixed, and unalterable by any practice, however 
persevering. 
The rays of light may shoot with nature’s charms, and bear her blossoms with- 
out toil or care, through the lapse of many years ; the seeds of judgment, though 
not sown till late in life, by cultivation substituted for loss of time, may quicken, 
and the crop grow to maturity w ith less of nature’s aid ; but the scions of art, if 
not grafted upon youthful stocks, and cherished with attention beside, vegetate 
slow and sickly ; for, notwithstanding they may germinate, and even push forth 
some branches, they are of that cramped and stunted growth, which cannot flou- 
rish ; and though appearances may flatter with the promise of some fruit also, 
the idea of its ever coming to perfection will most assuredly be indulged in vain. 
PHILOBILL. 
APPENDIX. 
After the Note in p. 110, read — In like manner a balk may be frequently made, 
by a playei dexterous in the use of it, when it is not otherwise to be attempted from the 
danger of kissing, and the ill consequences attending it, viz. if the cannon ball be 
only a small distance from the side cushion, and a little beyond the string-line, with 
the active ball somewhat- further on; so that the striker may be apprehensive of the 
cannon-ball meeting on return with his own. 
Note to the second paragraph ol p. 181. — It is advisable to have always the same part 
of the cue uppermost, for the accomplishment of similar designs ; as, the more precisely 
it be held, the less apt the player is to be deceived by any want of uniformity about the 
point, oi in the length of it; and although otherwise, or at any time, no more than the 
,e, and n little within it, would require chalking, (for those parts nearer to the middle 
can never touch 1 lie ball,) a much less portion will obviously be sufficient by following 
this advice— if the cue be not perfectly straight, it should be held (when striking the 
a 111 Sllt ^ a manner, as to have the bent either up or down, that its elastic iorce 
may not be exerted laterally 
ut, notwithstanding the above form be thought most convenient for general use ; 
P } - r wish to have much within his power, and understand how to manage it, 
t le point should be a little sloping and somewhat rounded at the sides only, having the 
mosr backward part sloped still more, to about the eighth of an inch from the edge; for 
with such a point, a ball may be made to twist or walk to an extraordinary degree 
(w ithout relinquishing any efficiency over those between), by holding it up or down, 
» occasion. But as first-rate players pertinaciously adhere to that 
» e which combined with execution has already ranked them so high, they 
mm 1 icir judgment in the aggregate, and vain of the superiority they have acquired, 
** ‘ w-Hh reluctance, from accustomed habits, to any novel means that may be 
theorist a ppieciating them as the wild suggestions of a speculating unpractised 
