GAMES of ART
—are those in which the skill, judgment, and penetration of the player are immediately concerned, and upon which alone his success must entirely depend. In this class are included Billiards, Chess, Draughts, Cricket, Fives, Tennis, Bowls, and some others, as well as a few upon the Cards; but as the latter are always subject to DECEPTION, and completely subservient to the slipping, sliding, and cutting of the most FAMILIAR FRIENDS, (even in private families,) they are, with propriety, much more entitled to the appellation of CHANCE than of ART, particularly where the unsuspecting player has the perpetual chance of being ROBBED, without the mortification of knowing the main-spring of depredation. However expert those may be, who indulge and excel in GAMES of ART, two things should ever be predominant in memory; always to play with an invariable philosophic PATIENCE and SERENITY, never to seem affected by a temporary run of ill-luck or momentary advantage, any more than agitated by the exulting irritation of a successful opponent. The run on one side may as suddenly be reversed to the other; a chance that petulance and ill-humour may probably destroy. Prudent players never engage in matches of any kind where four or more are concerned, except amongst their most intimate acquaintance; particularly at the public tables of the Metropolis, where it is the custom for three to poll one, and divide the spoils after the PIDGEON has been plucked; a very fashionable mode of playing at both BILLIARDS and WHIST; by which an infinity of necessitous and unprincipled adventurers procure a daily subsistence.