Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/205

 "But is it for a government to intensify and pander to, and profit by a national insanity?" said Della Rocca with much seriousness. "When Rome bent to the yell of Panem et Circences, the days of her greatness were numbered. Besides, the Duc is quite right—it is a ridiculous anomaly to condemn games while you allow lotteries. Great harm may result from private gambling—greater still from the public gaming-tables—but the evil after all is not a millionth part so terrible as the evil resulting from the system of public lotteries. The persons who are ruined by ordinary gaming, are, after all, persons who would certainly be ruined by some vice or another. The compound of avarice and excitement which makes the attraction of hazard does not allure the higher kinds of character; besides, the vice does not go to the player—the player goes to the vice. Now, on the contrary, the lottery attacks openly, and tries to allure in very despite of themselves the much wider multitude that is the very sap and support of a nation—it entices the people themselves. It lures the workman to throw away his wage—