the British House of Commons, or a botanical
lecture-room. The audience I seek is of those
eager for truth, even though it come in the
humblest garb, and with the smallest parade of
pretension. To them, then, do I declare, that
whist is the touchstone of humanity—the gauge
and measure of man."  "Whist!" exclaims
some rash objector, "why, whist is a game—a
mere game." Doubtless it is; but is not law a
game? Is not medicine a game? Is not public
life in its very highest walks a game? Is not
literature a game, a mere game, with all its
accidents of good and ill, its opportunities
gained or lost, its poor hands occasionally played
fortunately, and its trumps as often squandered?
To suppose that by the word "game" deprecation
must be understood, is to make a gross
mistake. All the world is a vast play-table,
with the heaviest stake that can be played for
on the board. In the same way, but in a far
more applicable sense, that the chase is said to
be mimic war, a game may be the counterfeit
of life, with all its vacillating changes, its
failures and successes, its short-comings and
its triumphs, its struggles and its accomplishments.

"I concede also this," cries another and more
eager opponent; "but what becomes of your
theory in the case of those—and a large majority
of people they make—who do not play, never
played, and probably never will play it?" To
that I reply, that where a watch has no
dial-plate I do not pretend to tell the hour. For
the sake of that large and benighted class, I am
ready with my sympathy and my sorrow. I
regret heartfully that so much of intellectual
culture has been denied them, even to the
pitying expression of Prince Talleyrand to
the unhappy man who confessed he had never
learned the game: "Ah, my friend, what a
wretched old age awaits you!" To tell me that
the test is a fallacy, because it is not of
universal application, is absurd; for what test is
there that has such conditions? School
experiences, for instance, make sad work of one's
occipital ridge. I myself had four of them
before I was on the "fifth form." Single-stick
will do as much or more for your facial angle.
A rowing-match against time will contribute
generously to the characteristic indications of
the palm of your hand; and as to the shape of
your hat, if you wear a Gibus or a Jim Crow,
you may defy all the "experts" of Europe.

I go no further, remember, than saying that
whist is the test of those who play it; and I no
more apply it to the outer barbarians who do
not, than I would prescribe the ascent of Mont
Blanc to a bishop. I am ready, as I told you
above, to deplore tearfully that the number is
not millions. I'd be pleased to think that even
in our own colonies, scattered as they are over
the universe, a rubber could always be found;
and that while I write these lines—it is now
nearing midnight—men were scoring the
honours at Newfoundland, and marking the trick
at Auckland.

Let no rash opponent burst in by saying, "Is
it thus he speaks of a frivolous pastime? Does
he want to dignify as a science a vulgar amusement,
or establish as a test of capacity mere
skill at a game?" Nothing of the kind, most
hasty and intemperate of critics. With the
amount of skill or ignorance a man may display
at whist I have little concern. It is not of
whist as a game I am treating, though I may
add, in a parenthesis, that when I shall have
addressed myself to the subject, Hoyle and
Major A. will figure at a low mark in cheap
catalogues, and even Dechapel be had for the
"binding."

No; my present business is with whist
ethically considered—whist regarded as the
emblem of the man whisting—and it is in the
elimination of this as theory that I lay claim
to the honour of a discoverer. There may be
some who will not accord me the patience,
slight though it be, I crave; some are already
throwing down this paper; some have arrived
at the condemnatory " Pshaw, what folly!"
But you, dear and valued reader, are not like
these men—you will hear me for "my cause."

Let me, then, start with the declaration that
whist includes a large range of high qualities,
and a great extent of acquirement. The great
whist-player must have patience, charity,
forgiveness, forbearance, promptitude, considerable
readiness in emergency, fortitude under calamity,
a clear faculty to calculate probabilities,
an admirable memory, and a spirit at once
self-reliant and trustful. Not alone must he be
graced by these bright endowments, but be
bland in manner, and a courtier in demeanour,
and be able to exercise every one of these qualities
at the moment of requirement, showing
himself at the self-same instant of time mature
in thought, quiet in action—a Murat in pursuit,
a Massena in resistance, and a D'Orsay in
politeness! Whist, you are aware, is a perfect
illustration of the law of evidence. You are
given certain facts as the basis by which others
are to be elicited. Your partner—I am speaking,
of course, of one deserving of that name,
one versed in the game, educated in its wisest
precepts, himself a man of capacity, and
animated by that spirit of responsibility which is
the very essence of a player, and which
whispers to him at each moment, "It is not my own
fate that is alone at stake, there is a
fellow-creature associated with me here; shall I by
this knave bring joy to his heart, or will that
club add another white hair to his whiskers?"
Such a man as this, I say, gravely arranging his
cards with a mingled caution and quickness,
leads a card, as the French say, "invites."
From that moment the issue of the cause opens:
his card is the first witness on the table; that
witness may be a person of mark or note, he
may be one of the middle rank of life, or some
humble creature, some deuce of diamonds,
merely sent forward, like a picket, to fire a shot
and fall back. Whatever be the card, the
question of evidence is opened, and as speedily do
you ask yourself, " What does this imply?" The
resources of your own hand aid you in the