'
[Page 317: Draughts and cards. AEtat 47.]
This year Mr. William Payne, brother of the respectable Bookseller[933] of
that name, published _An Introduction to the Game of Draughts_, to which
Johnson contributed a Dedication to the Earl of Rochford,[*] and a
Preface,[*] both of which are admirably adapted to the treatise to which
they are prefixed. Johnson, I believe, did not play at draughts after
leaving College[934], by which he suffered; for it would have afforded him
an innocent soothing relief from the melancholy which distressed him so
often. I have heard him regret that he had not learnt to play at
cards[935]; and the game of draughts we know is peculiarly calculated to
fix the attention without straining it. There is a composure and gravity
in draughts which insensibly tranquillises the mind; and, accordingly,
the Dutch are fond of it, as they are of smoaking, of the sedative
influence of which, though he himself never smoaked, he had a high
opinion[936]. Besides, there is in draughts some exercise of the
faculties; and, accordingly, Johnson wishing to dignify the subject in
his Dedication with what is most estimable in it, observes,
'Triflers may find or make any thing a trifle; but since it is the great
characteristick of a wise man to see events in their courses, to obviate
consequences, and ascertain contingencies, your Lordship will think
nothing a trifle by which the mind is inured to caution, foresight, and
circumspection[937].
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