"
Its mathematical title hardly hints at the amusement that the book
affords. With its solemn faith in the gravity of its mysteries, with
its uncertain spellings and capital-icings such as belong to even the
Eighteenth Century's early part, with its quaint phrases and sly
observations (all the time sticking strictly close to business), it has
a literary character, as well as me occult, that is quite its own.
Fortune-telling with cards and belief in fortune-telling with cards--
like a hundred greater and lesser follies of the mind--were straws
floating along the current of British life, intellectual and social,
during the reign of George the Second. This was the case, in spite
of the enlightening influences of religion, science, and philosophy.
Modish society was addicted to matters over which argument was
hardly worth while--in which respect we find modish society the
same in all epochs. Our ancestresses particularly were often
charming women, and almost as often sensible women; but, like
the men of Athens, they were too superstitious. Often were they
such in a fond and amusing degree. Lady Betty or Lady Selina--for
that matter, even Sir Tompkin and my lord Puce--might be spirited
men and women of the world. But they did not repudiate the idea
of ghosts. They abhorred a mirror's breakage. They disliked a
Friday's errand.
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