ger eyes with eager motions join,
As men who meditate some vast design:
Sure, these are Statesmen, met for public good,
For some among them boast of noble blood:
Or are they traitors, holding close debate
On desp'rate means to overthrow the State?
For there are men among them whose domains
And goods and chattels lie within their brains.
No, these are students of the blackest art
That can corrupt the morals or the heart;
Yet are they oft in fashion's ranks preferred,
And men of honour, if you take their word.
But they can plunder, pillage, and devour,
More than poor robbers, at the midnight hour;
Lay deeper schemes to manage lucky hits,
Than artful swindlers, living by their wits.
Like cunning fowlers, spread th' alluring snare,
And glory when they pluck a pigeon bare.
These are our gamesters, who have basely made
The cards and dice their study and their trade."{1}

1 Gaming is generally understood to have been invented by
the Lydians, when they were under the pressure of a great
famine. To divert themselves from dwelling on their
sufferings, they contrived the balls, tables, &c. and, in
order to bear their calamity the better, were accustomed to
play for the whole day together, without interruption, that
they might not be rack'd with the thought of food, which
they could not obtain. It is not a little extraordinary that
this invention, which was originally intended as a remedy
for hunger, is now a very common cause of that very evil.

~191~~"True," said Merry well, as Sparkle concluded, though he did not
like the satire upon his own favourite pursuit; "those delineations are
correct, and the versification good, as far as it applies to the worst
species of the gaminghouse."

"O," said Tom, "then pray, Sir, which is the worst?"

"Nonsense," said Sparkle, "there is neither worse nor best; these Hells
are all alike. _Sharks, Greeks, Gamblers, Knowing Ones, Black-legs, and
Levanters_, are to be met with at them all, and _they meet to bite one
another's heads off_."

"An admirable description, truly, of the company you are about to
introduce us to, Gentlemen," said Tallyho.

"I don't understand Greeks, Hells, and Black-legs," said Mortimer, "and
should like an explanation."

"W