The passion for alcohol seems innate in animal life; even the
wise ant can be readily induced to disgrace himself if alcohol is
put near him.
For all the human weaknesses and mainsprings--ambition,
affection, vanity, drunkenness, ferocity, greediness, cunning--we
can find beginnings among the lower animals.
But man appears to have evolved from within himself the gambling
instinct for his own especial damnation.
Where did the instinct come from? Why was it planted in us?
Like every other instinct with which intelligent nature endows
us, it must have its good purpose, and it must not be judged
merely in the corrupted form in which we study it at Monte Carlo
or in Wall Street.
Perhaps the spirit of gambling is really only an atrophied,
perverted form of the spirit of adventure.
Columbus staked his life and gambled, when he started across the
water.
The leaders of the American Revolution expressly staked their
lives, their fortunes and their "sacred honor" in signing the
Declaration of Independence. They were noble gamblers, working
for the welfare of their fellows.
Perhaps gambling is only a perverted form of intelligent
ambition--we are all natural gamblers because we have within us
the quality which makes us willing to risk our own comfort,
security and present happiness for a result that seems better
worth while.
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