Usbek to Ibbin, at Smyrna.
IN Europe gaming is much used; to be a gamester is sufficient to hold the place of birth, riches, or honesty, and, without examination, admits him to the rank of a gentleman; though there is nobody who does not know, that in judging in this manner, they are often deceived; but they have agreed to be incorrigible. The women, above all, are greatly given to it. It is true, they do not practise it much in their youth, to favour a dearer passion; but as they advance in years, their passion for play revives, and seems to supply the vacancy of the rest. They are determined to ruin their husbands, and to that end they have means suited to every stage of life, from the tenderest youth to the most decripid old age; the destruction commences with dress and equipage, gallantry continues it, and it is finished with gaming. I have often seen nine or ten women, or rather nine or ten centuries, set round a table; I have watched them in their hopes, their fears, their joys, especially in their transports of anger: you would swear they could never have time to appease themselves, and that their lives would end before their rage; thou wouldest have been in doubt, whether those they paid were their creditors or their legatees. It seems that our holy prophet principally intended to restrain us from every thing that might disturb our reason: He forbad us the use of wine, which as it were buries our reason: he hath, by an express command, prohibited all games of chance; and where it was impossible to take away the cause of our passions, he hath deadened them. Love, amongst us, brings no trouble, no fury; it is a languid passion, which leaves our soul in peace: a plurality of wives saves us from their dominion; and moderates the violence of our appetites.