This argument is pursued at some
length in the text. Passing from this singular application of
theology to chess play, we find the Third Advantage relates to
Government, the principles of which the author declares to be
best learned from chess. The board is compared to the world,
and the adverse sets of men to two monarchs with their subjects,
each possessing one half of the world, and with true eastern
ambition desiring the other, but unable to accomplish his design
without the utmost caution and policy. Perwiz and Ardeshir are
quoted as having attributed all their wisdom of government to
the study and knowledge of chess.
The Fourth Advantage relates to war, the resemblance to which
of the mimic armies of chess, is too obvious to detain the
philosopher long.
The Fifth Advantage of chess is in its resemblance to the
Heavens. He says, the board represents the Heavens, in which
squares are the Celestial houses and the pieces Stars. The
superior pieces are assimilated to the Moving Stars, and the Pawns
which have only one movement to the Fixed Stars. The King is
as the Sun, and the Wazir in place of the Moon, and the Elephants
and Taliah in the place of Saturn; and the Rukhs and Dabbabah
in that of Mars, and the Horses and Camel in that of Jupiter,
and the Ferzin and Zarafah in that of Venus, and all these pieces
have their accidents, corresponding with the Trines and Quadrates,
and Conjunction and Opposition, and Ascendancy and Decline,
such as the heavenly bodies have, and the Eclipse of the Sun is
figured by Shah Caim or Stale Mate.
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