Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1885 — A Scientific Game. [ARTICLE]

A Scientific Game.

Huxley has asked whether, if it were certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would one day depend on otir winning a game of chess, we should nc& all learn something of the game. “Yet it is a very plain truth that the life and fortune of every one of us depend on our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws .of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with overflowing generosity, bdt one who plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without remorse.”