Practices towards any Creatures whatsoever; left their Hearts grow hard and unrelenting, and they learn in Time to practife thefe Cruelties on their own Kind, and to murder and torture their Fellow-Mortals; or at least to be indifferent to their Pain and Distress, fo as to occafion it without Remorse.

THEY fhould never be fuffered to game for Money, nor even for their own Toys or Play-things if they are coftly and expensive : Many fore Inconveniencies in riper Years arife from fuch Indulgences. And indeed no Recreations should be accounted lawful, but those in which they can with Courage recommend themselves to God, and defire his Bleffing upon them.

THOSE Children who are kept pretty clofe to Learning in a School, fhould be directed to pursue their Recreations, as much as may be, in the open Air; and to exercise their Limbs with Vigour and Activity, that their Growth and Health may not be impaired by Study, and too much Confinement to a Book. But in very foul Weather, or in long Winter Evenings (as I hinted before) they may be taught to feek fuch Diverfions as may at once refresh and improve their Minds.

FOR want of this, in fome Families the Games of Draughts and Chefs are practifed, and fome other little Sports upon a ChefsBoard, without any Stakes or Aim at Gain, beyond

beyond the mere Pleasure of Victory. In other Houses, Cards and Dice are introduced, for want of better Recreations. The former of thefe, (viz.) Draughts and Chefs, are innocent enough, and may wear off a heavy Hour, when the Mind or Body are unfit for Bufinefs: The latter have had the general Cenfure of our wife and pious Fathers, and there have been most unhappy Effects attending them: And indeed thefe, Games are feldom ufed without depofiting too much Money as the Stake, and this tends to engage the Paffions with greater Vehemence than the Nature of a Recreation can require, or fhould admit. But I leave it to those who are more fkilful in cafuiftick Divinity to prove them abfolutely unlawful in the very Nature of the Game.

HOWEVER that be, I have often earnestly wifhed, that inftead of all thefe Games there were fome more profitable Sports invented for a long Evening, for a dull Hour, or a rainy Seafon: And I am well affured, that if fome ingenious Mind, which is well fkilled in mathematical Learning and in Games, would but take Pains to contrive fome fuch Diverfions, there might be a much better Account given of the Hours of Leifure and Remiffion of Business by Persons of both Sexes, and of all Ages, than can be at prefent, for want of fuch useful and improving Recreations.

WHAT

WHAT if Cards and Dice fhould be proved to be never fo lawful in themfelves, yet there might be various Inventions, of much more Advantage to Knowledge and Virtue placed in the room of them. May not fome little Tablets of Pafteboard be made in Imitation of Cards, which might teach the unlearned feveral Parts of Grammar, Philofophy, Geometry, Geography, Aftronomy, &c.

WHAT if on one Side of these Tablets or Charts a Town or City were named and described, and on the other Side the County, Province, Kingdom where that Town stands, with fome geographical or hiftorical Remark on it: And whofoever in Play draws the Chart with the Town on it, should be obliged to tell the Country where it stands, and the Remark made on it?

WHAT if on one Side were a geometrical Figure, and on the other the Demonftration of fome Property belonging to it?

WHAT if one Side bore the Name or Figure of any Piece of Money; and the other all the Multiples of it by the nine Digits, or as far as twelve? This would be ufeful for Children bred up to a Trade.

WHAT if the Figure of fome Plant, Animal, Engine, or any Thing elfe in the World of Nature or Art, were printed on one Side; and on the other the Name of the Thing, which fhould be required to be fpelled right by young Scholars when they fee the

Figure,

Figure, in order to teach them the Art of Spelling. And if to this were added fome beautiful Expreffion or Defcription of the Thing, taken out of our best English Poets, to be repeated by him who draws the Chart which has the Figure on it?

OR if on one side were a Word in Englife, and on the other the fame Thing expreffed in Latin, Greek or French for thofe who learn thefe Languages.

OR if fingle Names of famous Men and Women were on one Side; and the Reverse contained the Hiftory, or fome short Account, of thofe Perfons whofe Names are fo famous.

WHAT if in a Sheet of Paper, or a twopenny Book, were written a hundred Proverbs, or wife Sayings collected out of Moralifts, ancient and modern, relating to all the Virtues and Vices; and a Collection of the most eminent Examples of thefe Vices and Virtues were fuperadded: And if one or more folid Bodies of Wood of fixteen, twenty, or thirty-two flat Sides were formed with the Name of one Virtue or Vice inscribed on each Side; and by the trolling of this many-fided Toy, the uppermoft Word or Name should be an Indication what Proverb, or what Example to require?

THERE have been, I confefs, several Sorts of Cards invented with Proverbs, with various learned Figures, and mathematical N

De

Devices upon them: But, as far as I can learn, thefe have been but mere Pictures and Ornaments to the Hearts and Diamonds: These learned Devices and Figures have had no Share in the Game: The Cards are ufed like common Cards ftill, without any Manner of Improvement of any of the Gamefters in these Sciences. But what I propose is a Contrivance to render thefe Words, or Figures, or Sentences the very Implements or Engines of the Sport itself, without fo much as the Form of any Spade, or Club, or Heart, or Diamond drawn upon the Chart or Tablet.

SOME of thefe Exercifes and Diverfions, if happily contrived, may not only be fit to entertain Children in their younger Years, but may usefully amufe them when they are grown up toward Manly Age.

FOR my Part, I own myself to be fo much unfkilled in the various Games used among us, that I am not fit to contrive, nor capable of inventing fuch useful Paftime. But I wish fome of the Sons of Ingenuity had Science and Virtue fo much at Heart as to attempt fuch a Service to Mankind. And Parents fhould feek fome Sort of delightful Employments or Recreations for the leifure Hours of their Sons and their Daughters when they are in the Stage of Youth, that they may be the more eafily with-held from thofe Di

verfions