Description
The present age is distinguished for discovery of the records and monuments of antiquity, and for the Wonderful discoveries of the secrets of nature ; for searching after things long past, and for making progress with rapid strides into the future. These two studies frequently go hand in hand together. We study the buildings and the sculptures of the ancient games, and the paintings of the old masters, and We apply the principles thus learnt to the requirements of the present day; we study ancient authors, not merely to improve our taste and intellect, but also to enable us to exert our faculties to the best advantage in the affairs of life. The formation of a magic square is an occupation which we can enjoy when alone, as it presents countless varieties of ingenious solution. Men in the present age of necessity and practical industry are apt to look upon such occupations as trivial, and as a waste of time; but they forget that the mind requires relaxation as well as the body; and that as some of the first Wranglers have been the first athletes; and as the most illustrious Greeks thought it their highest glory to be a victor in the Olympic senet games; so Euler and other eminent mathematicians have not despised the solution of such problems. But of all these oldest chess games is the most useful ; for as mathematics is a handmaid to logic, and teaches the lawyer to build up and establish his proofs before he goes on; so chess teaches the soldier not merely the science of attack, but instils caution in the mind of a prudent general to avoid surprises, to fortify his base of operations, and to despise no foe.