THE GAME OF LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2629, 18 May 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GAME OF LIFE.

Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend on his winning or losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to bo a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all tho moans of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation mnounting to scorn upon the father who allowed the son, or tho State which allowed its members to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight? Vet it ' is very plain and elementary truth that ! the life, tho fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and more or less of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of tho game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and every woman of ua being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is tho world, the pieces are tho phenomena of the uuiverse, and the rules of the game are what wo call the laws of nature. Tho player 011 the other side is hidden from us. \Ye know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also wo know to our cost that he never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To tho man who plnys well the highest stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which tho strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without rcmors",-Professor Huxley.