try prepared to cherish a vice which has at least the merit of engaging the mind, and preventing the thoughts from becoming their own prey. Besides the tables of hazard which are introduced at routs, and at which even females do not blush publicly to risk their fortunes and their tempers; besides the legitimate gaming-houses, many of which are under the sanction of government, and contribute to its support;-those amusements which in other countries, from the dexterity they require, and the interest they excite, are not thought to want the stimulus of a stake, are in Italy made vehicles of profit and loss. I have observed boys, when playing at ball, duly pay and receive at the end of each game. Nay, the beggars in the streets may be constantly seen venturing the baiochs they have gained by their day's importunities. May we not then still exclaim in the words of the satirist :

Quando

Major avaritiæ patuit sinus? alea quando

Hos animos?—Juv. i. 87.

When did fell avarice so inflame the mind?

And when the lust of play so curse mankind?-GIFford.

In

"A taste, which has ever been so natural to the Italians, has derived great encouragement from the pernicious system of small lotteries, which prevail in almost every town to an extent that is truly wonderful. walking along the streets, the eye meets in every direction such advertisements as these in the shop-windows: "Qui si giuoca per Roma;' Here's a lottery for Rome:

6

Qui si giuoca per Firenze;' Here's a lottery for Flor

6

ence: Qui si giuoca per Napoli,' &c. Thus in each town is stationed one lottery-office, at least, for every other. The plan, too, upon which they are framed is surprisingly seductive. Out of ninety tickets which are put into the wheel, five only are drawn; the purchaser of one of these five receives fifteen times his stake, be it more or less. If he stakes upon two numbers*, as a combination, and both happen to be drawn, he receives two hundred and seventy times his stake; but nothing, if one of them only turns up. If upon three numbers as a combination, he gets five thousand times his stake, supposing him fortunate. Neither is hope suffered to build its airy castles for two or three months previous to the drawing, as in England. Within a few days after the pur

Those who gamble in the lottery play upon certain numbers; for each ticket is inscribed with one or more numbers, the highest number being ninety. Hence the choice of numbers on which to play naturally enough gives rise to a variety of superstitions, and there are books published which shew the relation of every occurrence to numbers in the lottery. Thus, if I dream that my dog bites me, I should, perhaps, find from my books, that in this is prefigured an injury to be received from a friend, and that the same thing is connected, by some mysterious link, with No. 62. But as the magic volume cannot supply a provision for every possible case, ingenuity must make up for the deficiency. Let us put a case: I see a human figure on one of the highest pinnacles of the Alps. My conjuring book affords me no explanation. How then am I to read the emblem. I see a man who has reached a pitch as high as human daring and address can carry him; what can this mean but that I am to mount as high as possible in the lottery scale? The case is clear; and I play 90.-Rose.

chase of the ticket its fate is determined, when the adventurer may be induced to improve his success or repair his disaster by another trial. The evil effects of these lotteries are further increased by the very small, as well as the more serious sums which it is permitted to risk in them. A ticket may be purchased for a few pence; and thus a temptation is held out to the lower classes, which they find it impossible to resist.

"It appears not improbable that this incentive to gambling existed of old in Italy, and that from thence it subsequently passed into other countries. According to Evelyn, lotteries were brought into England from Venice in the reign of Charles II.-(Evelyn's Memoirs). He may be right in the place from whence they were imported here, but the period was of somewhat an earlier date. Goldoni, in his life of himself, gives the Genoese the credit of the invention; those speculating citizens having been used to gamble upon the ballot which happened twice a year for fifty senators to relieve the body who went out of office.-(Memorie di Goldoni, vol. i. p. 197). But, however that may be, it is certain, that, when the Roman emperors gave an entertainment, a lottery was often resorted to after dinner as an agreeable pastime. Accordingly we read, that Augustus sometimes sold tickets for prizes, in the value of which there was the utmost discrepancy, and that he would dispose of pictures with their faces turned towards the wall; thus amusing himself with the satisfaction or disappointment of the parties who had purchased.-(Sueton. Aug. 75).

Heliogabalus, too, had prizes of ten camels, ten flies, ten pounds of gold, ten of lead, ten eggs, provided for his guests. (Lamprid. 21). Might not state-lotteries have originated in some such practice as this?"

143

MUSEO BORBONICO.

A rowth o' auld nick-nackets,

Rusty airn caps, and jinglin jackets.-BURNS.

THE MUSEO BORBONICO, or STUDII, as it is otherwise called, is a magnificent establishment, containing rich collections of statues, pictures, and books. But the most interesting objects here are the curiosities found at Herculaneum and Pompeii, which, for greater safety, were brought hither some years since from the Portici museum. Amidst this miscellaneous assemblage of antiques, you may see, in all their details, "the ancient most domestic ornaments"-the kitchen utensils, of which there is a vast collection-the surgical instruments, also in considerable number-and even the very trinkets with which the Roman ladies decorated their persons.

These remains afford an apt illustration of Solomon's apophthegm, that "there is nothing new under the sun." Many of the articles might, if we looked merely to their form, pass for the manufacture of the present day. And though, perhaps, as regards the apparatus of the kitchen, this is sufficiently accounted for by the fact, that the modern manufacturers of such articles have long made it their study to copy from the ancient models; yet it is not so easy to account for the same resemblance in other things in the bits of the bridles, for example—the