“In the island of Ceylon, cock-fighting is carried to a great height.  The Sumatrans are addicted to the use of dice.  A strong spirit of play characterizes the Malayan.  After having resigned every thing to the good fortune of the winner, he is reduced to a horrid state of desperation.  He then loosens a certain lock of hair, which indicates war and destruction to all he meets.  He intoxicates himself with opium, and working himself to a fit of frenzy, he bites and kills every one, who comes in his way.  But as soon as ever this lock is seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at the person, and to destroy him as soon as possible.”

“To discharge their gambling debts, the Siamese sell their possessions, their families, and at length themselves.  The Chinese play night and day, till they have lost all they are worth, and then they usually go and hang themselves.  In the newly discovered islands of the Pacific Ocean, they venture even their hatchets, which they hold as invaluable acquisitions, on running matches.  We saw a man, says Cooke, in his last voyage, beating his breast and tearing his hair in the violence of rage, for having lost three hatchets at one of these races, and which he had purchased with nearly half of his property.”

But it is not necessary to go beyond our own country for a confirmation of these evils.  Civilized as we are beyond all the people who have been mentioned, and living where the Christian religion is professed, we have the misfortune to see our own countrymen engaged in similar pursuits, and equally to the disturbance of the tranquillity of their minds, and equally to their own ruin.  They cannot, it is true, stake their personal liberty, because they can neither sell themselves, nor be held as slaves.  But we see them staking their comfort, and all their prospects in life.  We see them driven into a multitude of crimes.  We see them suffering in a variety of ways.  How often has duelling, with all its horrible effects, been the legitimate offspring of gaming!  How many suicides have proceeded from the same source!  How many persons in consequence of a violation of the laws, occasioned solely by gaming, have come to ignominious and untimely ends!

Thus it appears that gaming, wherever it has been practised to excess, whether by cards, or by dice, or by other instruments, or whether among nations civilized or barbarous, or whether in ancient or modern times, has been accompanied with the most violent excitement of the passions, so as to have driven its votaries to desperation, and to have ruined their morality and their happiness.