high enough to define well the interest taken in the game; but the idea of gain, which is the essential feature of gambling, enters as little into the mind of a Whist as of a Chess player. We have sometimes heard of what are called 'professional' players, who play with this object; but, we believe, they are generally given a wide berth in good society.

Whist has always been a favorite pursuit of great men. The most philosophical novelist of modern times uses it to illustrate his profound speculations; and we have heard an eminent scholar and writer declare he considers it a revelation to mankind! But we have the vox populi also in its favor; for does not the proverb represent the clever successful man as 'playing his cards well?'

Considering the great popularity of Whist in this country, and the extent to which it is played in all cla ses of society, it is really astonishing to find how few people take the pains to play it well. It has been remarked, by writers on the subject, that good players are very seldom to be met with, fine ones scarcely ever. And yet, how amply it repays a little trouble devoted to its acquisition!

How, then, is this strange deficiency to be accounted for? Simply because people do not generally admit that Whist, like other branches of knowledge, requires study. It is commonly supposed that, after acquiring the simple construction of the game, practice alone will suffice to make a good player. This is a great mistake, as experience abundantly shows. We continually meet with persons who have played Whist all their lives; and yet who, though they may bring to bear on their play great observation, memory, and tact, play on so entirely different a system to that sanctioned and practised by real experts in the game, as scarcely to be fit to sit at the same table with them.

We have already alluded to the wonderful variety to be found in the game of Whist; and we may now add that this variety is manifested, not only on the distribution of the cards which is the work of chance-but also in the playing of them, which depends on the human will. It is with this latter element that we have now more especially to do.

Although the construction of the game is so simple that it might be defined in a few words, and learnt by a child in a few minutes, yet such is the amazing scope it gives for individuality of play, that the same deal, or even the same hand of cards, might be played in an immense number of different ways, according to what the player's notions of good and bad play might be. And this variety involves modes of treatment so different in their character and principles, as really to merit the name of distinct games. Thus we often hear it said, 'Such a man plays a game quite different from mine; ' and we find 'the old

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fashioned game,' 'the modern game,' 'the domestic game,' 'the club game,' ‘the scientific game,' and so on, all spoken of as if they were separate things, agreeing only in the primary features which distinguish Whist from other games at cards.

Now it is a very natural inquiry, whether, among so many various modes and systems, differing so widely from each other, there is any one in particular which may be identified and defined as superior to the others, and which consequently ought to be preferred for study? If so, what is this system? What is the theory on which it is based? And on what grounds does its superiority rest?

It is the object of the present essay to endeavor to answer these questions.

In the first place, is there any particular mode of playing Whist, which is so distinct from and so superior to all others, as to merit being distinguished as the best game? It is very common to hear this denied, particularly by inferior players, who will argue that opinions vary, that they think their own system as good as other people's, and so on. If by this they mean (as some of them do) that they consider the game chiefly as one of chance, and that their amusement is as much promoted by one mode of playing as another, we have nothing to say to them, except to suggest that 'Beggar my neighbor' or Pope Joan' would be games better adapted to their capacities. But there are others more worthy of attention, who object to all rules and systems whatever, declaring that the play ought to be determined by the player's judgment and will alone; and the objection is usually backed by the assertion, that play on any fixed system is often unsuccessful, which is, of course, only the necessary consequence of the large entrance of chance into the game. Self-taught players are extremely confused in their notions on this point. When they see good play fail to win, they will point out, with amusing ex post facto discrimination, how much more fortunate some other course would have been. But when good play does succeed, and especially when some clever masterstroke may have annihilated for them a hand of good cards, they will complain how cross the cards run,' as if the whole were entirely due to accident!

The fact is, that, like almost everything else that may be done in different ways, there is a best way of playing Whist; and, although a very wide latitude may always be left for individual judgment and skill, yet the existence of a system of play, preferable to all others, is sufficiently proved by its acknowledgment by all the best writers and the best players, and by a tolerably near agreement, among all these authorities, as to what this system is.

The immortal Hoyle appears to have been the first to perceive, a century and a quarter ago, that Whist was capable of being reduced to a scientific and logical system, of high intellectual merit; and although his descriptions are somewhat obscure (as might naturally be expected in the first efforts to describe a complicated new discovery) yet careful and persevering examination enables us to trace clearly in them the general nature of the system he founded. This has been adopted in its general form by all succeeding writers and players of eminence; and, as might be expected, the constantly progressive experience of so long a period, and the attention devoted to the game by many powerful minds, have gradually developed the system into a more complete and perfect form, and have added to it modern improvements of much interest and value, tending still further to raise the intellectual character of the game.

It is this general system, therefore, which is laid down by almost all writers of any authority, and practised by almost all players whose example is worth following; and we need no further proof that, as far as our knowledge at present extends, it is the best that ingenuity and skill have been able to devise.* It is worthy the appellation of a scientific system, on account of the elevated reasoning it involves; and, on this account, combined with the

* From actual trials, extending over a long period, the Author has seen reason to infer that the systematic combined game, explained in this treatise, gives an advantage, in the long run, over unsystematic separate play, of about half a point in each rubber.