refer to the original number of the bi-weekly issue as we may to the Tatler or Spectator), a question is answered with regard to "the odds that may happen in games depending on chance." The late Mr. R. A. Proctor often wrote upon this subject; it is one that possesses interest to every mathematician, and is only incidentally connected with card-play.

A little later the question was asked (p. 66), "What effectual method shall a man take to resist the vice of gambling?" From the reply given it will be seen that Apollo was not in favour of gaming. "To resolve really against it is half a cure which we would enforce from these considerations. Should two persons, worth £100 each, resolve to risk all at gaming, the disproportion betwixt the advantages of the winner and the disadvantages of the loser are very great: The first is little bettered in his circumstances, the last quite undone : Nay, we may say, there is great difference in the value of the money itself, which is of its full intrinsick value to the loser, but not to the winner; for the speedy and easy manner of obtaining it occasions that it is idly lavished, so that he enjoys but little part of the necessaries of life, in comparison to what the industrious person

does for the same sum, who feels its value in his labours, and is thence rendered more sensible thereof; it diverts the mind also from the prosecution of more real and certain dependencies, and is generally associated with divers other vices, as avarice in the application to it, unseemly passions in the continuation, and prodigality or desperation in the conclusion; thus he, who all the while fancies he plays upon the square, plays against the most disproportionate and preposterous odds."

Another correspondent, signing himself Count Hatchet, afterwards wrote in favour of gaming if unattended with quarrelling and swearing; but Apollo maintained his former position in favour of the "merchant adventurer," and against the gamester.

When asking Apollo's opinion on the respective merits of rhyme and blank verse, the querist wrote"A considerable wager depending hereon, and the parties being agreed to stand to your determination, you are entreated to give your answer in your next paper." There was also a wager laid on the following weighty question—" Whether the moon in Ireland is like the moon in England?" To which Apollo, who always acted on the principle of answering a fool according to his folly, replied

There may be a little likeness so far as is usual between sisters, but by no means fully like; for certainly nature, who adopts all things proper, would give a far more glorious moon to Great Britain than to little Ireland." To the question, "Do Parrots understand what they speak?" Apollo replied-" As well as you what you read, or you'd hardly have asked Apollo so wise a question."

There is sufficient internal evidence left, even in the fourth edition, to show that the British Apollo was originally published at periodical intervals. It is said to come out twice a week, one of the days of issue being Friday, and in another place a quarterly part is referred to. The queries of correspondents were to be left with Mr. J. Mayo, or other booksellers. One querist, complaining that his letter had not been answered, wrote :—

"You bid us address

To J. Mayo's press,

Or Bickerton's, near to St. Paul's,

Or else your friend Keeble

Was certainly able

To receive both grave questions and drolls."

From another reference, the subscription would appear to have been half-a-crown per quarter.

Although the appearance is well sustained, it would be rash to assume that all the queries appearing in the British Apollo were sent in by various correspondents, as the authors pretend, and were not, question and answer alike, the entire "performance" of the society of literary and scientific gentlemen who conducted the paper. Several times, questions bearing on that point were asked and answered negatively; but that may have been done only for the purpose of letting their secret be an open one. "Q.—Hark ye, you Apollo, don't you make questions and answer them yourself? A. Not at present, really, sir; but should soon take that method if other people's questions were of no more consequence than yours."

It is probable that the system pursued in editing the periodical, was mainly that of answering bona fide questions asked by various correspondents, but there is sufficient evidence to show that a good many of the contributions were not of that To write in the form of question and answer, or in dialogue form, was a favourite style of composition adopted principally in works of a religious or educational character. This style of

nature.

writing began to die out about fifty years ago, but still survives in Catechisms, and minor religious publications. There was, however, no dialogue in the British Apollo, but simply question and answer, with the occasional appearance of a poem. In the Athenian Oracle, the writers, in a few cases, wrote in dialogue, and thus betrayed the fact that in these instances, at least, both question and answer had been written by the same pen.

We must remember it was the period of such literary trickery as Defoe and Swift delighted in. The former wrote, in 1705, what purported to be the "True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal, the next day after her Death, to one Mrs. Bargrave." This was appended to a new edition of Drelincourt's Christian's Defence against the Fear of Death, which had originally appeared in 1675. It was not a popular work, and required Defoe's fictitious recommendation from another world to make it sell. Mrs. Veal's apparition told her friend that "Drelincourt's Book of Death was the best book on the subject ever wrote." She also advised Mrs. Bargrave to read Dr. Kenrick's Ascetic, and Norris's Friendship in Perfection, books that, in all probability, required a lift from another world to move them from the booksellers' shelves, on