SHEPHERD.
Come, come now, Mr. North, and dinna allow paradox to darken or obscure the bright licht o' your great natural and acquired understandin'. 'Good and great' are lofty epithets to bestow on ony man that is born o' a woman—and if ony such there have been who delivered themselves up to sin, and shame, and sorrow, at the ggeming-table; let their biographers justify them—it will gie me pleasure to see them do't—but such examples shall never confound my judgment o' right or wrang. 'Shake the elbow indeed!' What mair does a parricide do but 'shake his elbow,' when he cuts his father's throat? The gamester shakes his elbow, and down go the glorious oak trees planted two hundred years ago, by some ancestor who loved the fresh smell o' the woods—away go—if entail does no forbid—thousands o' bonny braid acres, ance a' ae princely estate, but now shivered down into beggarly parshels, while the Auld House seems broken-hearted, and hangs down its head, when the infatuated laird dies or shoots himself. Oh, man! is nae it a sad thocht to think that my leddy, aye sae gracious to the puir, should hae to lay down her carriage in her auld age, and disappear frae the Ha' into some far-aff town or village, perhaps no in Scotland ava'; while he, that should hae been the heir, is apprenticed to a writer to the signet, and becomes a money-scrivener i' his soul, and aiblins a Whig routin' at a public meetin' about Queens, and Slavery, and Borough Reform, and Cautholic Emancipation."
St. Francis Xavier, though disapproving of all games of chance, yet did not absolutely condemn them as forbidden by the word of God; but endeavoured to reclaim, by gentle means, those who were addicted to play. "That he might banish Games of Chance," says his biographer, "which almost always occasion quarrels and swearing, he proposed some little innocent diversions, capable of entertaining the mind, without stirring up the passions. But seeing that in spight of his endeavours they were bent on Cards and Dice, he thought it not convenient to absent himself, but became a looker-on, that he might somewhat awe them by his presence; and when they were breaking out into any extravagance, he reclaimed them by gentle and soft reproofs. He showed concernment in their gains, or in their losses, and offered sometimes to hold their cards.
"While the ship that carried Xavier was crossing the Gulph of Ceylon, [in 1545] an occasion of charity was offered to the Saint, which he would not suffer to escape. The mariners and souldiers pass'd their time, according to their custome, in playing at cards. Two souldiers set themselves to it more out of avarice than pleasure, and one of them plaid with such ill fortune, that he lost not only all his own money, but the stock which others had put into his hands to traffick for them. Having nothing more to lose, he withdrew, cursing his luck, and blaspheming God. His despair prevail'd so far over him, that he had thrown himself into the Sea, or run upon the point of his sword, if he had not been prevented. Xavier had notice of these his mad intentions, and execrable behaviour, and immediately came to his relief. He embrac'd him tenderly, and said all he cou'd to comfort him: But the souldier in the transports of his fury, thrust him away, and forbore not even ill language to him. Xavier stood recollected for some time, imploring God's assistance and counsel; then went and borrow'd fifty Royals of a passenger, brought them to the souldier, and advis'd him once more to try his fortune. At this the souldier took heart, and play'd so luckily, that he recover'd all his losses with great advantage. The Saint, who look'd on, took out of the overplus of the winnings, what he had borrow'd for him; and seeing the gamester, now return'd to a calm temper, he who before refus'd to hear him, was now overpower'd by his discourse, never after handled cards, and became exemplary in his life.
"He was particularly free in his converse with souldiers who are greater libertines, and more debauch'd in the Indies, than elsewhere. For, that they might the less suspect him, he kept them company; and because sometimes when they saw him coming, they had hid their cards and dice, he told them, They were not of the clergy, neither cou'd they continue praying all the day; that cheating, quarrelling and swearing, were forbid to gamesters, but that play was not forbid to a souldier. Sometimes he play'd at chess himself out of complyance, when they whom he study'd to withdraw from vice, were lovers of that game: And a Portuguese gentleman, whose name was Don Diego Norogna, had once a very ill opinion of him for it. This cavalier, who had heard a report of Xavier, that he was a saint-like man, and desir'd much to have a sight of him, happen'd to be aboard of the same galley. Not knowing his person, he enquir'd which was he; but was much surprised to find him playing at chess with a private souldier. For he had form'd in his imagination, the idea of one who was recollected and austere, and who never appear'd in publick but to discourse of eternity, or to work miracles." [340]
St. Francis de Sales was, in his younger days, a card-player, though subsequently he condemned all games at cards as being in themselves unlawful. [341] According to the Duchess of Orleans, the old Marshal Villeroi, who had known him in his youth, could never bring himself to call him Saint. As often as the name of St. Francis de Sales was mentioned in his presence, he would observe, "I was delighted to learn that Mons. de Sales was a Saint. He was fond of saying smutty things, and used to cheat at cards; in other respects he was a perfect gentleman, though a ninny." [342] The excuse that he made for his cheating was, that whatever he won was for the poor. Cardinal Mazarine, another dignitary of the church of Rome, was much given to cheating at play as well as in politics; and it is related by an eye-witness, that when he was on his death-bed, he still continued to play at cards, one of the company holding his "hand;" and that he was thus employed when he received the Pope's plenary indulgence, together with the viaticum, as a prince of the church, from the Papal nuncio. [343]
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many of the clergy of all degrees in France, Spain, and Italy appear to have been much addicted not only to card-playing but to gaming in general, notwithstanding the determinations of casuists and the prohibitions of councils. Masses and prayers were sometimes staked by the priest against the hard money of the layman; and even devout people, following the example set them by their pastors, used to play with each other for Aves and Pater-nosters. On the subject of the clergy staking masses at play, Barbeyrac, a Protestant, observes, "These are in truth frivolous matters, and of no effect, to say no worse; nevertheless, as those who traffic in them believe, or, at least, pretend to believe that a kind of sanctity and supernatural virtue are attached to their use, all play for such stakes is unlawful; and he who thus profanely ventures them is evidently guilty both of sacrilege and simony." With respect to playing for prayers, Thiers says that the practice is not condemned by Dr. Navarre, and that Père Raynaud bears witness of its being admitted among the devout; for his own part, however, he disapproves of it as "a heteroclite refinement of devotion;" and is of opinion that there is some degree of irreverence in playing for Psalms, Pater-nosters, and Aves. [344] The Spanish phrase, "Jugar los Kiries" shows that such a practice was not unusual among the clergy of that country: though the explanation of the phrase in some dictionaries is, that it relates to a clergyman who plays away the alms that are given him for praying, it yet properly relates to a clergyman who plays away prayers,—not the money given for them.
Among the vices generated by gaming, that of swearing is especially noted by most authors who have written on the subject. [345] The French appear to have minced and frittered their oaths, swearing "like a comfit-maker's wife;" the English and Germans to have sworn grossly; and the Spaniards and Italians to have blasphemed in a spirit of refined impiety. Pascasius Justus, in this respect, calls the gaming-table the devil's farm, and says that it always yields him a most abundant crop. In his time, gamesters do not appear to have merely sworn from vexation, but even to have delighted in pouring forth a volley of oaths. He relates that, when he once told a gambler that he himself could never utter an oath, the other replied, "Then you are ignorant of a great pleasure." A French writer, speaking of the oaths of the Spaniards, gives the following anecdote, as an instance of their impiety. On one occasion, when an order had been issued to the Spanish army against swearing, a soldier having lost all his money at cards, and not daring to violate the letter of the order, gave vent to his feelings by exclaiming, "Beso las manos, Señor Pilato," "I thank you, Mr. Pontius Pilate."—"Il devoit être brûlé," is the judgment of the relater. A similar instance of blasphemy, on the part of an Italian who had lost his money at cards, is recorded by Henry Stephens, in the introduction to his 'Traité de la Conformité des Merveilles anciennes avec les modernes.' [346]
With respect to the passions excited by gaming, the learned and pious Jeremy Collier expresses his opinion in the following manner, in his 'Essay on Gaming,' in a Dialogue: "I can't help observing that playing deep sets the spirits on float, strikes the mind strongly into the face, and discovers a man's weakness very remarkably. Cards and dice, &c. command the humour no less than the moon does the tide; you may see the passions come up with the dice, and ebb and flow with the fortune of the game; what alternate returns of hope and fear, of pleasure and regret, are frequently visible upon such occasions?
Ενθα δ' ἁμ' οιμωγη τε και ευχωλη πελεν ανδρων,