is family--"My children, we have nothing more to do at court: there we
must expect no favour; for the king is offended at my having won of him
every game of chess." As chess entirely depends on the genius of the
players, and not on fortune, King Philip the chess-player conceived he
ought to suffer no rival.

This appears still clearer by the anecdote told of the Earl of
Sunderland, minister to George I., who was partial to the game of chess.
He once played with the Laird of Cluny, and the learned Cunningham, the
editor of Horace. Cunningham, with too much skill and too much
sincerity, beat his lordship. "The earl was so fretted at his
superiority and surliness, that he dismissed him without any reward.
Cluny allowed himself sometimes to be beaten; and by that means got his
pardon, with something handsome besides."

In the Criticon of Gracian, there is a singular anecdote relative to
kings.

A Polish monarch having quitted his companions when he was hunting, his
courtiers found him, a few days after, in a market-place, disguised as a
porter, and lending out the use of his shoulders for a few pence. At
this they were as much surprised as they were doubtful at first whether
the _porter_ could be his _majesty_. At length they ventured to express
their complaints that so great a personage should debase himself by so
vile an employment. His majesty having heard them, replied--"Upon my
honour, gentlemen, the load which I quitted is by far heavier than the
one you see me carry here: the weightiest is but a straw, when compared
to that world under which I laboured. I have slept more in four nights
than I have during all my reign. I begin to live, and to be king of
myself. Elect whom you choose. For me, who am so well, it were madness
to return to _court_." Another Polish king, who succeeded this
philosophic _monarchical porter_, when they placed the sceptre in his
hand, exclaimed--"I had rather tug at an _oar_!" The vacillating
fortunes of the Polish monarchy present several of these anecdotes;
their monarchs appear to have frequently been philosophers; and, as the
world is made, an excellent philosopher proves but an indifferent king.

Two observations on kings were offered to a courtier with great
_naivete_ by that experienced politician, the Duke of Alva:--"Kings who
affect to be familiar with their companions make use of _men_ as they do
of _oranges_; they take oranges to extract their juice, and when they
are well sucke