SELECTED ARTICLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 173, 9 November 1876, Page 3

SELECTED ARTICLES.

A DEFENCE OF WHIST.

Whist, in a pre-eminent degree, exactsthe exercise of a targe rangt* of faculties—tad facutfcii*, too, of a vevy dissimilar order. It w very common to hear a preference accorded to ches* over whist, on (die ground that in chess no eU-nu-tit of ohunce enters, and that the whole eoiidttet of the game is resolvable to mathematical certainty. Now. it is precisely for thia v«ry difference that we claim theanperiority for whiat. It bin this same element of what may or may not bo that we have a fold for the exercise of those powers which calculate probabilities, and argue front the likuly orf*nJikety, and draw conclusions from premises not absolutely certain, but still m probable as are the greater number of the unaccomplished events in our actual Uvea. If there be a game which sets the fine edge of the reasoning powers of the man of the world—of htn» who is to be conversant with the daily incidents of life, and who seta them in motion—it it whiat. Show m© a first-rate whist player, and I will engage to a.iow you a man to whose knowledgw of the world._ to whose tact, to whose powers of computing the coat of any action, and striking the Balance of advantage or disservice it might entail, you may apply in a moment of doubt or difficulty, fchow me a tirat-rate whist-player, and you show me one who combines patient powers of a judicial order with tiie energetic rapidity of » man of action, who has the keenest appreciation of the laws of evidence, along with tlw steady courage of the soldier, and in whose balanced intellect no undue prominence i* ever accorded to on;? class of faculti»» at the expense of another.