Читать книгу Catlin's Historic Origin of the Playing Cards - H. D. Catlin - Страница 3

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The native genius inherent in man has ever been inspired and brought into use by Divine Providence, seemingly, to gratify and encourage man's ambitions to excel and progress in all of the many avenues opened in nature, in art and in science for the development of the same. This genius, guided by the "Law of Progress," knows "no such word as fail;" and it is only a question of time when success will reward the effort.

Man was born with a native love for amusements and pastime recreations, and hence the adage, "All work and no play made Jack a dull boy." All great and durable enterprises have had their beginning with the ordinary ignorance of the ordinary man. And when the right time should come, Providence has always transferred "nature's gift" to the more advanced and better educated man to accomplish and make perfect the work of genius. It is a truth in fact that "necessity is the mother of invention," and that "ignorance is the mother of genius;" and to both man may recognize his "birth-right"—so to speak—to the honors due, for the most, if not all, of the many enterprises which have rewarded his labors in many of the past centuries of the Christian era.

The "playing cards" are the production of an ingenious human device, derived from the divine origin of time; the history of which but little has heretofore been known and understood by the world of card players and the public in general. So far as the author is informed, no like historic record has ever been published, and card players have, seemingly, taken little or no interest to learn and know the historic origin of the greatest enterprise known to the sixteenth century, the period of their advent, so valuable and important to the present generation. A thorough and studied perusal of this work is recommended, and will convey much desirable information worth knowing, and will advance its present popularity and aid its future general publication.

THE AUTHOR.