Fortuna may proudly enumerate her great votaries in America: Aaron Burr, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wirt, Luther Martin, Gouverneur Morris, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, General Hayne, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, Generals Burnett, Sickles, Kearney, Steedman, Hooker, Hurlbut, Sheridan, Kilpatrick, Ulysses S. Grant, George D. Prentiss, Sargeant S. Prentiss, Albert Pike, A. P. Hill, Beauregard, Early; Ben Hill, Robert Toombs, George H. Pendleton, Thaddeus Stevens, Green of Missouri, Herbert and Fitch of California, “Jerry” McKibben, James A. Bayard--father of the recent Secretary of State--Benjamin F. Wade, the lamented Broderick, John C. Fremont, Judge Magowan, Charles Spencer, Fernando Wood and his brother Benjamin, Colonel McClure, Senator Wolcott, Senator Pettigrew, Senator Farwell, Matthew Carpenter, Thomas Scott, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Hutchinson of Chicago, and Pierre Lorrillard. Names might be extended indefinitely. Enough have been mentioned to illustrate how the gambling habit permeates all ranks of society in the United States.
With the conclusion of our retrospect, we may well exclaim: What is the nature of a passion so inveterate and general: of a propensity that dominates all mankind alike, whether noble or mean, wise or foolish, strong or weak? “Is there a remedy?” propounds the philosopher. The legislator asks, “What is my duty?”
What is Truth; or, the Philosopher’s Stone?
In mediæval romance the Alchemist is a familiar figure--with flowing robe and skull-cap, in the midst of crucibles and alembics. This period of the world did not present a feature more weird and picturesque: a body of learned but misguided men, professing the “chemistry of chemistries.” With eagerness and devotion they vainly sought for a principle that could indefinitely prolong human life and transmute the baser metals into gold and silver. Although centuries have elapsed since Gebir and Paracelsus, yet the “philosopher’s stone” is a desideratum. Of the Alchemists it has been quaintly said by Percy, “that their respective histories were accurate illustrations of the definition which describes Alchemy as an Art without principle, which begins in falsehood, proceeds in labor, and ends in beggary.”