Whether the origin of the game of Solitaire is to be sought among the North American Indians (as is asserted by the Enr-.-opidie MUiodiqsee). or in Chaldza. or in China (as others maiiLn,). it is certain that it was well-known at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. That it has been allowed to fIll into undeserved neglect is, I conceive. whoUy due to the fact that no one, up to the present, has ever investigated the possibiites of the subject, or provided the person of average ir.:e- gPece with any adequate guide to the numerous and fas--;--g problems for which the game affords scope. The present treatise aims at rectifying that omission.