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be 2 raised to the millionth power; then the probable average value of each would be 1,000,002/., which is a large number of pounds; but the number is a mere nothing compared with the number of trials, a number containing 301,081 digits ! If the smallest atom, according to the estimate made by physicists, were divided into a million millions of parts, the entire volume of a sphere exceeding a million million times in radius the distance of the remotest star brought into view by Lord Rosse's mighty telescope would not contain a million millionth of that number of these indefinitely minute subdivisions of the atom. Nay, we might write trillions or quadrillions where we have just written millions in the preceding lines, and yet not have a number reaching a quadrillionth part of the way to the inconceivable number obtained by raising 2 to the millionth power. Yet for this tremendous number of trials the average mathematical value of each would amount but to a poor million--absolutely nothing by comparison.
GAMBLING IN SHARES.
IF there is any evil quality of human nature which, by its persistence, its wide-spreading and its mischievous
influence, speaks of the inborn savagery of human nature, it is the greed for chance-won wealth. In all ages men have been moved by it. It has seemed so natural, that men have lost sight of its innate immorality. ' If I take my chance fairly with others and win,' the gambler argues, ' I have done no man wrong, not even myself or the members of my family. What
I win I can regard as gain, not less legitimate than the profits on some business transaction. If other men are
ruined, or if I run the risk of ruin myself, this is no more than happens all the time. Other men may be killed in various chance ways; I may myself be killed ere the day is out in some chance manner: why should I not, since I and others must incur the chances of life, raise other chance issues by which either gain or loss may result to others or to myself?'
It may be that false though this reasoning is as a defense, there is more of excuse in it than those imagine who use it. Beyond doubt the element of chance which
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