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Industry and Application might set things right, and make them almost as rich as their younger Brothers. Intereft would charm them to Virtue, though they had stopt their Ears to Reason and Confcience: For all Well-bred Perfons are agreed to deteft Poverty more, if poffible, than Learning itself.

Still it will be urged, that the Daughters of Gamefters are unprovided for in this Scheme, whom Cuftom, if not Nature, hath barred from all Resources of Industry, except fuch as are beneath the Dignity of noble Birth; and therefore, in the Cafe abovementioned, they are inevitably exposed either to Poverty or Contempt.

'Tis confeffed their Education differs from ours: They cannot flourish at the Bar, or bluster in a Campaign; but they may exercise their Genius at Whift, or their Courage at the Brag-Table; the Card Aflemblies are still open to their Industry; the nobleft Scene, wherein the Female Talents can be exerted: Neither is any great Fund neceffary for this, if we confider the known Prerogatives of the Sex: When they win, they have speedier Payment; when they lose-they have longer Credit. And certain it is, whatever Pain it may give us to confefs it, the Ladies have the Powers of Gaming in greater Perfection than the Men: What Enthufiafm in their Hopes! what Judgment in their Fears! what Skill in changing Places and veering about, when the Wind of Fortune is in their Teeth! how dextrously do they fhuffle! how critically do they cut! how do N 2

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they penetrate into an Adverfary's Game, as it were with a Glance! then they calculate! Thought cannot keep pace with them: doubtlefs they play the Whole Game with greater Success than we can pretend to do.

But fuppofing they had no Refource; it is only a particular Inftance of Diftrefs from which no State hath been exempted; an Accident by which the beft Purposes of Industry and Virtue have fometimes miscarried it is no Difgrace to a Gamefter that he is foiled by Fortune, who hath lurched Generals in her Time, and Statesmen too when they have looked wifeft.

Some, like Roderigo, to put Money in their Purse, have fold all their Lands; why not? Gaming, like the Law, abhors Perpetuities. Property is in conftant Circulation; but then, like the Sea, what it lofes on one Shore it gains on another; and if fome few can be mentioned whom Play hath reduced to Beggary, I could engage (if it would not offend their Modefty) to name many more whom it has taken out of the Mire to fet them with Princes.

Now to view this Affair in another Light: Pray where is the Difference, in point of Morality, between the Gamefter that trafficks with his Stock at home, and the Merchant that fends it abroad on foreign Ventures? But it will be afked, "Do I call "the Profeffion of Gamefters a Trade?" Yes, certainly one of the most flourishing in the Kingdom.

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And if they should get themselves erected into a Corporation, 'tis what I have long expected, and they cannot do a better thing. But to proceed the Situation of our Country inclines us to Commerce, and the Genius of our People determines them to Play. The Merchant often risks his whole Effects in one Bottom, and the Gentleman often hazards all his Estate upon one Rubber: 'Tis true they are both liable to the Strokes of Fortune; for one cannot command the Winds and the Waves, any more than the other can the Aces and Honours; but their Defigns are the fame, equally tending to advance their Family, and to ferve their Country. The whole Diftinction is, that when the fatal Stroke happens, one is ftyled a Bankrupt, the other a Cull; but for my own Part, I must be indulged in calling the Gamefter, under those Circumftances, a Broken Merchant, because it was the Term we used at School when a Boy had loft all his Marbles.

But now, to fee the different Treatment the mifjudging World affords to these two baffled Adventurers: One is received with Pity, the other with Infamy; neglected by his Friends, infulted by his Enemies, defpifed by all.-This is the Reward of diftreffed Merit in this Northern Climate! These are the Fruits a Gentleman is to expect after having facrificed his Time, Health, and Quiet, in the Profecution of a noble Scheme, merely because he has happened, in the Experiment, to beggar himself and his Pofterity.

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But I hope these Gentlemen, when they are brought to a Situation wherein they shall no longer choose to be popular, I truft, they will appeal from the Clamours of the Multitude, to the ftill Voice of their own Confcience And when they fhall hear themselves traduced as Poifoners of Morals, and Corruptors of Youth, they will lay their Hands upon their Breafts (where they will be fure to find all quiet) and reflect that all this happened to Socrates long ago.

I now come to those Objections wherein the Gamefter is taxed as an Enemy to the general Good of the Community. And firft, thofe old-fashioned Politicians (there are not many of them left) who think Righteousness exalteth a Nation, are in Pain for the general Defection to Vice, which Gaming occafions; and they are grievoufly afraid that the horrid Oaths and Blafphemies which are daily vented, and numberless Frauds which are inceffantly practifed, will foon complete the Measure of our Iniquities, and bring on the third Earthquake very shortly.

As to Oaths, the Objection, I must needs fay, is frivolous enough; for as all Perfons are agreed, Gentlemen muft fwear fomewhere, what is the matter whether it be done in the Progrefs of a Rubber, or an Intrigue, in W-te's Chocolate-house, or a Lady's Bed-Chamber? But for my own Part, fince Perjuries have been so freely tolerated of late, I thought (and if I am wrong I beg Pardon for a very innocent

Mistake)

Mistake) I took it for granted that Oaths had been allowed, as tending to enliven Converfation, and to revive Eloquence.

The Suppofition of Blasphemy muft proceed from a want of Candour, which, I hope, few will imitate. Such Words should not be rafhly applied to large Affemblies, where it is odds but far the greater Part are entirely innocent; for how can Men blafpheme a Power which they do not acknowledge to exist?

As to Frauds, they could never be suspected, if the Principles on which Gentlemen regulate their Conduct were once known, which I fhall therefore take leave to disclofe as briefly as poffible.

It is agreed by Philofophers, there is a ftrict Analogy between the Natural and Moral Systems. Now as the Mafs of Nature, according to Aristotle, is compounded out of four principal Ingredients, to which he afterwards added a Quinta Effentia, of more refined Nature and occult Qualities; fo Morality is formed in like manner out of four Elements, which are vulgarly ftyled the Cardinal Virtues, befides which there is a Quintessence called Honour, for the Ufe of the Nobility, Gentry,—but No Others; for thus the matter is ordered; the Mob content themfelves with the Elements, leaving to the Quality the fole Poffeffion of the Quintessence. As to defining it, I fhall not fet about it for the present, nor in all Likelihood for the Time to come, it being a thing much easier to be felt than understood. And here

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