chess is a most excellent
means for quickening the intellect, and enabling it to gain knowledge.
'For the glory of man is knowledge, and chess is the nourishment of
the mind, the solace of the spirit, the polisher of intelligence, the
bright sun of understanding, and has been preferred by the
philosopher, its inventor, to all other means by which we arrive at
wisdom.' The second advantage is in the promotion and cultivation of
religion; predestination and free-will are both exemplified--the
player being able to move where he will, yet always in obedience to
certain laws. 'Whereas,' says the writer, 'Nerd--that is, Eastern
backgammon--on the contrary, is mere free-will, while in dice, again,
all is compulsion.' The third and fourth advantages relate to
government and war; and the fifth to astronomy, illustrating its
several phenomena as shewn by the text, according to which 'the board
represents the heavens, in which the squares are the celestial houses,
and the pieces, stars. The superior pieces are likened to the moving
stars; and the pawns, which have only one movement, to the fixed
stars. The king is as the sun, and the wazir in place of the moon, and
the elephants and taliah in the place of Saturn, and the rukhs and
dabbabah in that of Mars, and the horses and camel in that of Jupiter,
and the ferzin and zarafah in that of Venus; and all these pieces have
their accidents, corresponding with the trines and quadrates, and
conjunction and opposition, and ascendancy and decline--such as the
heavenly bodies have; and the eclipse of the sun is figured by shah
caim or stale mate;' and much more to the same purport. We question
whether the astronomer-royal ever suspected he was illustrating his
own science when engaged in one of his quiet games of chess with the
master of trinity.

The sixth advantage is somewhat astrological in character: as there
are four principal movements of chess, these answer to the four
physical temperaments, Cold, Warm, Dry, and Wet, which are ruled by
their respective planets; and thus each piece on the board is made to
have its peculiar significance in relation with the stars. It is
further shewn, that chess-playing is remedial against many of the
lesser bodily ailments; 'and no illness is more grievous than hunger
and thirst, yet both of these, when the mind is engaged in chess, are
no longer thought of.' Next in order, the seventh advantage, is 'in
obtaining repose for the soul;' as the author