Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/547

Rh and a sounder, more refreshing sleep, if his mind can be diverted for an hour or two to some different train of thought, which ought to be barely interesting enough to keep his attention without producing excitement or requiring strong exertion.

Two elements which enter into a game are of prime importance—chance and skill. In the latter word we include both manual and mental skill. For example, in cup and ball we have an instance of a game requiring nothing but manual skill; while in jackstraws, it is a combination of chance with manual skill that determines the result. Again, in checkers we have a game of pure intellecturalintellectual [sic] skill, but in backgammon intellectual skill is combined with chance. Skillful physicians prescribe for a patient that kind and degree of exercise which is suited to his case—to one a rocking-chair on the south piazza; to another a good round trot out of town on the saddle. Thus, in the evening games, which shall rest the tired worker, or divert the invalid, there is a great opportunity for wise choice in selecting those which are best suited for the purpose in view. Men of intellectual habits, who need rest for the brain and diversion for the sake of rest, find the greatest benefit in those games which demand constant attention, but comparatively little mental exertion. The late Charles Robert Darwin astonished the scientific world by the immense amount of labor which he successfully accomplished. One secret of his immense power of endurance unquestionably lay in his devotion to backgammon, in which he so frequently passed his evenings. This game has the admirable qualities, first, of demanding imperiously your attention at every throw of the dice; and, secondly, of giving you a comparatively easy question in the use you are to make of the throw. There was even an advantage in the old fashion of invariably calling out each throw in mongrel French before playing; it still more fully occupied the mind with "easy nothings." The preponderance of chance over skill in backgammon is a fourth recommendation of this game for a tired brain. It produces a constant but slight expectation or watching to see what will turn up. In the Russian game, however, it has appeared to us that the preponderance of chance was too great; it does not leave enough demand for skill. This, also, is the objection to dominoes.

In rude antithesis to backgammon and dominoes stands chess. This game can not be said to be popular, in the strict sense of the word, and the reason is evident—it is too severely intellectual. It is a very famous game; so also are Newton's "Principia" and Butler's "Analogy" very famous books. But neither of the three are likely to be found on the sitting-room table as an amusement for either old or young when needing recreation. Moritz Retzsch's marvelous picture of the young man playing chess for