MISCELLANEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 584, 31 October 1863, Page 9 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEA.

A highly instractive and interesting lecture on cheis was delivered to the members and friends of the Athenaeum, Worcester, by Edgar Shapphard, Esq., of which the following is a brief abstract : — The lecturer, after a few preliminary observations, in which, the importance of chess, by comparison with all other games,' was insisted upon, divided/the subject into three heads : -First, the history of chess ; second, an account of the celebrated automaton chess-player ; and third, the powerful effect of chess upon the mind and passions. In the first place it was shown that chess, or at least the game from which it orig nated, was invented before the siege of Troy. Various anecdotes were related, as recorded by the historian, of different countries which lay claim to the honor of its invention. Next some ingenious evidence and 'reasoning were oftered, to prove that the true chiinnei of the introduction of chess into Europe has been overlooked> and that it came into Spain at the Arabian Conquest, in the eighth century, aad was thtnee diffused .through the European nations. In alluding to the various countries in which chess is played in the present day. Mr Shepphard stated that England now boasted of the finest living player,—that. ''' this island of yours," as Carlyle calls it, "claimed the empire of the chessboard, as well as the empire of the seas." In the second place, the wonderful deception of the celebrated automaton chess-player, was commented on and explained. This part of the subject was illustrated by some neatly executed diagrams. After giving, in the last place, a short notice of the ex;t^,(irdinary effect of chess upon the mind and passions, and relating some amu*ing anecdotes to prove it, the lecturer concluded in the .following manner :— "And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have finished the object which I had in view. J have given you as concise a sketch as possible of a subject, ;t'e history of which embraces a period of more than 3000 .years. And the number of great aud illustrious individuals who_ during this long and eventful time have successiv«Jy devoted their minds to its •fconsideratibn, surely (orin some slight guarantee that chess, is not so trifling a matter as it has been esteemed liy many. That, believe me, can be no'mere trifling amusement, which has enlisted in the ranks of its supporters such men as the i-.mperor Charlemagne, as Richard Coeur de Lion, as Tamerlane, as Pope Leo X., as Henry IV. and Louis XI V. of France, as Charles Xl.i. King of Sweden, and a host of othera who have long since made their.last move, and been mated by man's great enemy—death. That can be no unintellectual pursuit which occupied the captive hours of that great man, whom the genius of a Byron has described as, ■■:.. ' The modern, mightier far, Who, born no king, made monarchs draw his car ; Whose game was empires, aud whose stakes were thrones— » Whose table earth,—whose dice were human bones.' There, upon'that lonely island in a far off sea, the illustrious idol of an illustrious people still solaced his troubled spirit, by plotting the overthrow of Kings and Queens, though upon a less extended sphere, until * The fettered eagle broke his chain, And higher worlds than this were his again.' That, too. can be no empty pastime which represents, as Lord Teignmouth has written, ' our glorious constitution; in that it has a King, whose dignity we strenuously defend, but whose power is extremely limited j Knights and Rooks, bearing a resemblance to the orders of Nobility; Pawns symbolising the people, in whose finn and united strength, lies the chiefest, power, and the surest source of victory.' And, above all, that can be no frivolous or profitless amusement which imparts to the mind vigour and caution, circumspection and foresight; which shows us how occasionally we may, by the exercise of these qualities, be < xtricated from apparently insurmountable difficulties, and which enables us to apply the moral to the tale of life, by showing its analogy with our daily warfare in the world,—a world which purposely yields us trial and trouble here, in order to prepare us for eternal.eujoyment.hereafter."