joined in the
amusements of the private hour, as well as in the public dangers of the
field.

Very soon, however, the evil consequences of their introduction became
apparent. One would have thought that in such a tumultuous reign at home
as that of our sixth Henry, there could not have been so much use made
of cards as to have rendered them an object of public apprehension and
governmental solicitude; but a record appears in the beginning of the
reign of Edward IV., after the deposition of the unfortunate Henry, by
which playing cards, as well as dice, tennis-balls, and chessmen, were
forbidden to be imported.

If this tended to check their use for a time, the subsequent Spanish
connection with the court of England renewed an acquaintance with cards
and a love for them. The marriage of Prince Arthur with the Infanta
Catherine of Arragon, brought on an intimacy between the two nations,
which probably increased card-playing in England,--it being a diversion
to which the Spaniards were extremely addicted at that period.

Cards were certainly much in use, and all ideas concerning them very
familiar to the minds of the English, during the reign of Henry VIII.,
as may be inferred from a remarkable sermon of the good bishop Latimer.
This sermon was preached in St Edward's church, Cambridge, on the Sunday
before Christmas day, 1527, and in this discourse he may be said to have
'dealt' out an exposition of the precepts of Christianity according
to the terms of card-playing. 'Now ye have heard what is meant by this
"first card," and how you ought to "play" with it, I purpose again to
"deal" unto you "another card almost of the same suit," for they be of
so nigh affinity that one cannot be well "played" without the other,
&c.' 'It seems,' says Fuller, 'that he suited his sermon rather to the
TIME--being about Christmas, when cards were much used--than to
the text, which was the Baptist's question to our Lord--"Who art
thou?"--taking thereby occasion to conform his discourse to the "playing
at cards," making the "heart triumph."'

This blunt preaching was in those days admirably effectual, but it would
be considered ridiculous in ours--except from the lips of such original
geniuses as Mr Spurgeon, who hit upon this vein and made a fortune of
souls as well as money. He is, however, inimitable, and any attempt at
entering into his domain would probably have the same result as that
which attended an imitation of Latimer by a count