quence, that the first means of applying the principle consists in seizing the initiative or the offensive. In order, therefore, to apply skilfully this incontrovertible principle, castle as early as possible, by which you place your king in a position of security, and bring a powerful piece, the rook, into action. But if, on the other hand, your adversary should have seized the initiative, do not castle until he has well developed his attack, and the castle on the opposite side, by which you remove your king out of the tactical direction, or the radius of attack, and oblige your adversary to change his front. Should you, on the other hand, imprudently castle on the side on which your adversary has developed his attack, you execute a flank march before an army in position, and, like Soubise at Rosbach, will infallibly lose your army and your honour. Act, therefore, always en masse, reconnoitre well your adversary's position, and remember that it is skilful disposition and a rapid combination of simultaneous attacks which determines the result. Chess being a game of pure skill, induces many people to look upon a great chess player as a being endowed with a superior capacity; but this I have no hesitation in ranking as a popular fallacy. Some of the greatest chess players have in other respects been mere imbeciles; while, on the other hand, men of the most splendid genius have never been able to attain more than a mediocrity of skill. Early instructionconstant practice, limited to one single object-a mechanical memory for combination, strengthened by exercise—and that peculiar turn for play which is so much more powerfully developed in some men than in others-these are the sources of the science of Chess, but which are, however, no indication of other talents. Nevertheless,

like Montaigne, I do not rank Chess as a puerile game; it is an agreeable pastime, and by exercising the intellectual powers in the combination of ideas, barren it is true, will form the mind of youth to early habits of reflection and induction, that will prepare it for other combinations of the highest importance in the great game of life.

Chess, it is generally asserted, bears a striking analogy, to the science of war, and, as a corollary it follows that a great general must be a great chess player. The latter is not borne out by historical fact. Gustavus Adolphus, Charles the Twelfth, Napoleon, and a host of other distinguished warriors, were but indifferent chess players. Neither does Chess bear the analogy to war which is so generally supposed. Strategically speaking, I grant there may be some identity of principles; but tactically speaking, it does not exist; and the reason is obvious-in actual operations in the field, locality plays a distinguished part-a field of battle generally presenting every variety of ground, while the chess-board is marked by the greatest uniformity of configuration. To obviate, in fact, this defect, it is that tacticians have long felt the desideratum of a game which should present a more faithful image of war, and afford an opportunity of combining the action of the three arms, and of making the application of their evolutions to every variety of ground. With this view, a game (Jeu de la Guerre) was invented about the beginning of the present century by a Swiss, to which the celebrated Massena for a time devoted considerable attention. But a still more complete game, the Kreiggs Spiele, was invented a few years ago by a Prussian officer of artillery, which caused at the time considerable sensation in the military circles on the Continent.

The apparatus of the game may be seen in the arsenal at Berlin. It illustrates with the greatest fidelity the operations of the three arms in the field, and is furnished with plans of ground exhibiting every local feature by which tactical movements are effected, and also with marks according to the scale of the plan, shewing the actual space which the bodies of troops they represent would occupy, whether in line or en masse. The "materiel" of the game consists in small rectangular figures, various in size, according to the strength of the force they represent, from sections of men to even single files, and single pieces of ordnance to masses of six battalions with their batteries. There are also scales shewing the ranges of musketry and artillery either with grape or round shot. Plans of the battles of Ligny, Dresden, the Kalsback, Quatre Bras, and other celebrated fields, have been expressly lithographed for this game, exhibiting every gradation of slope, and at different intervals. The game is played by two persons and presided by an umpire, and is now very generally cultivated in the armies of Russia and Prussia.

Chess, from time immemorial, was known in Hindôstan by the name of Chaturanga, or the four members of an army (elephants, horsemen, chariots, and foot-soldiers); afterwards in Persia, styled Chatrang (the game of king); and Shatranj (the king's distress) by the Arabians; undergoing various other changes in different languages, ultimately formed the English appellation of Chess. It is played on a board with thirty-two pieces of different forms, denominations, and powers, divided into two colours or parties.

The chess-board, like the draught-table, contains sixty-four squares, chequered black and white. The king and his officers, being eight pieces, are ranged at different ends upon the first lines of the board, a white corner of which, numbered 1, is to be placed towards the right-hand of one player, and the other white corner opposite diagonally, numbered 64, towards the right hand of the adversary.

The white king must be upon the fourth, a

black square (marked 61), at one end of the board reckoning from the right; the black or red king upon the fifth (5), a white square, at the other end of the board; opposite to each other. The white queen must be upon the fifth (60), a white square, on the left of her king. The black queen upon the fourth (4), a black square on the right of her king. The bishops must be placed on each side of their king and queen; 59 and 62 for the white, 3 and 6 for the black. The knights on each side of the bishops: the white on 58 and 63, the black on 2 and 7. The rooks, in the two corners of the board, next to the knights, 57 and 46 of the white, 1 and 8 of the black: and the eight pawns, or common men, upon the eight squares of the second line; the white on 49 to 56, and the black on 9 to 16 inclusive.

The pieces, and pawns, on the side of each king, take their names from him, as those on the side of the queen do from her, and are called the black or white king's bishop (6 and 62); the king's knights (7 and 63); the king's rooks (8 and 64); the king's pawns (13 and 53); the king's bishop's pawns (14 and 54); the king's knight's pawns (15 and 55); the king's rook's pawns (16 and 56); the black or white queen's bishops (3 and 59); the queen's knights (2 and 58); the queen's rooks (1 and 57); the queen's pawns (12 and 52); the queen's bishop's pawns (11 and 51); the queen's knight's pawns (10 and 50); and the queen's rook's pawns (9 and 49). The squares are named from the pieces, viz. where the king stands, is called the square of the king; where his pawn stands is called the second square of the king: that before the pawn is called the third square of the king; that beyond it is called the fourth square of the king; and so of all the rest.