, are mentioned by Aristophanes in his
comedies, and so it seems that the invention must be placed between the
times of the two poets, that is, about 2300 years ago. At any rate the
cube or die has been in use as an instrument of play, at least, during
that period of time.

The great antiquity, therefore, of the die as an instrument of pastime
is unquestionable, and the general reason assigned for its invention
was the amusement and relaxation of the mind from the pressure of
difficulties, or from the fatigues and toils of protracted war. Indeed,
one conjecture is, that gaming was invented by the Lydians when
under the pressure of a great famine; to divert themselves from their
sufferings they contrived dice, balls, tables, &c. This seems, however,
rather a bad joke.

The afflicted Job asks--'Can a man fill his belly with the east wind?'
And we can imagine that plenty of tobacco to smoke and 'chaw' would
mitigate the pangs of starvation to an army in the field, as has been
seriously suggested; but you might just as well present a soldier with
a stone instead of bread, as invite him to amuse himself with dice, or
anything else, to assuage the pangs of hunger.

Be that as it may, time soon matured this instrument of recreation into
an engine of destruction; and the intended palliative of care and labour
has proved the fostering nurse of innumerable evils. This diminutive
cube has usurped a tyranny over mankind for more than two thousand
years, and continues at this day to rule the world with despotic
sway--levelling all distinctions of fortune in an instant by the fiat of
its single turn.

The use of dice was probably brought into this island by the Romans,
if not before known; it became more frequent in the times of our Saxon
ancestry, and has prevailed with almost unimpaired vigour from those
days to our own.

The Astragalos of the Greeks and Talus of the Romans were, as before
stated, nothing but the knuckle-bones of sheep and goats, numbered, and
used for gaming, being tossed up in the air and caught on the back of
the hand. Two persons played together at this game, using four
bones, which they threw up into the air or emptied out of a dice-box
(fritillus), observing the numbers of the opposite sides. The numbers
on the four sides of the four bones admitted of thirty-five different
combinations. The lowest throw of all was four aces; but the value of
the throw was not in all cases the sum of the four numbers tur