ss to the Lottery, even with
all deductions, would be a heavy one, and the Roman exchequer is by no
means in a position to bear a heavy drain. In consequence, measures are
taken to avert this calamity; each office reports daily what sums have
been staked on what numbers; and, if any numbers are regarded with undue
partiality, orders are issued from the head department to receive no more
money on these numbers or series. I have assumed all along that the
numbers are drawn fairly, and, without a very high opinion of the
integrity of our Papal rulers, I am disposed to think they are. In the
first place, any general impression of unfairness would greatly damage
the future profits of the speculation; and, secondly, by the usual rule
of averages it will be found that, on the whole, people stake pretty
equally on one combination as another, and therefore the question, which
particular numbers are drawn, is of less practical importance to the
lottery management than might at first be supposed. In spite, however,
of these abstract considerations, the virtue of the Papal Lotteries,
unlike that of Caesar's wife, is not above suspicion; and I have often
heard Romans remark, that the only possible explanation of there being
one blank day between the closing the lottery-offices and the drawing was
the obvious one, that time was required to calculate, from the state of
the stakes, what combination of winning numbers will be most beneficial,
or least hurtful, to the Papal pockets.

Whatever mathematicians may assert, your regular gamblers always believe
in luck, and therefore it is not surprising that a nation, whose great
excitement is the lottery, should be devout worshippers of the blind
goddess. It may be that some memories of the Pythagorean doctrines still
exist in the land of their birth, but be the cause what it may, it is
certain that in the southern Peninsula a belief in the symbolism of
numbers is a received article of faith. Every thing, name, or event, has
its numerical interpretation. Suppose, for instance, a robbery occurs;
forthwith the numbers or sequences of numbers corresponding to the name
of the robber or the robbed, the day or hour of the crime, the articles
stolen, or a dozen other coincident circumstances, are eagerly sought
after and staked upon in the ensuing lottery. Then there are the _numeri
simpatici_, or the numbers in each month or year which are supposed to be
fortunate, and lists of which are pu