“
In fact, there are two sorts of gaming--namely, the game of the
gentleman and the game of the plebs--the game for gain, and the game of the
herd. Herein, as said, I draw sharp distinctions. Yet how essentially base are
the distinctions! For instance, a gentleman may stake, say, five or ten louis
d’or--seldom more, unless he is a very rich man, when he may stake, say, a
thousand francs; but, he must do this simply for the love of the game
itself--simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process of winning or of
losing, and, above all things, as a man who remains quite uninterested in the
possibility of his issuing a winner. If he wins, he will be at liberty, perhaps, to
give vent to a laugh, or to pass a remark on the circumstance to a bystander,
or to stake again, or to double his stake; but, even this he must do solely out
of curiosity, and for the pleasure of watching the play of chances and of
calculations, and not because of any vulgar desire to win. In a word, he must
look upon the gaming-table, upon roulette, and upon trente et quarante, as
mere relaxations which have been arranged solely for his amusement. Of the
existence of the lures and gains upon which the bank is founded and
maintained he must profess to have not an inkling. Best of all, he ought to
imagine his fellow-gamblers and the rest of the mob which stands trembling
over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly with himself, and playing solely
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for recreation and pleasure. This complete ignorance of the realities, this
innocent view of mankind, is what, in my opinion, constitutes the truly
aristocratic.
”
”