IT

LETTER IX.

To TIMO CLEA,

July 29, 1748.

T is with wonderful fatisfaction I find you are grown fuch an adept in the occult arts, and that you take a laudable pleasure in the antient and ingenious study of making and folving Riddles. It is a fcience, undoubtedly, of moft neceffary acquirement, and deferves to make a part in the education of both fexes. Those of yours may by this means very innocently indulge their ufual curiofity of discovering and disclosing a secret; whilst such amongst ours who have a turn for deep fpeculations, and are fond of puzzling themselves and others, may exercise their faculties this way with much private fatisfaction, and without the leaft difturbance to the public. It is an art indeed, which I would recommend to the encouragement of both the univerfities, as it affords the eafieft and hortest method of conveying fome of the most useful principles of logic, and might therefore be introduced as a very proper D 3 fub.

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substitute in the room of those dry systems, which are at present in vogue in those places of education. For, as it confifts in discovering truth under borrowed appearances, it might prove of wonderful advantage in every branch of learning, by habituating the mind to feparate all foreign ideas, and confequently preferving it from that grand source of error, the being deceived by false connections. In fhort, Timoclea, this your favorite science contains the fum of all human policy; and as there is no paffing thro' the world without fometimes mixing with fools and knaves; who would not choose to be mafter of the enigmatical art, in order, on proper occasions, to be able to lead afide craft and impertinence from their aim, by the convenient artifice of a prudent disguise: It was the maxim of a very wife prince, that "he "who knows not how to diffemble, knows "not how to reign:" and I defire you would receive it as mine, that he who "knows not how to riddle, knows not how "to live."

BUT befides the general usefulness of this art, it will have a farther recommen

dation to all true admirers of antiquity, as being practifed by the moft confiderable perfonages of early times. It is almoft three thousand years ago fince Samfon propofed his famous riddle; though the advocates for ancient learning must forgive me, if in this article I attribute the fuperiority to the moderns: for if we may judge of the fkill of the former in this profound art by that remarkable fpecimen of it, the geniuses of thofe early ages were by no means equal to those which our times have produced. But as a friend of mine has lately finished, and intends very shortly to publish, a most learned work in folio, wherein he has fully proved that important point, I will not anticipate the pleasure you will receive by perufing his curious performance. In the mean while let it be remembred to the immortal glory of this art, that the wisest man, as well as the greatest prince that ever lived, is faid to have amused himself and a neighboring monarch in trying the ftrength of each other's talents in this way; feveral riddles, it seems, having paffed between Solomon and Hiram, upon condition that he who D 4 failed

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failed in the solution should incur a certain penalty. It is recorded likewise of the great father of poetry, even the divine Homer himself, that he had a tafte of this fort; and we are told by a Greek writer of his life, that he died with vexation for not being able to discover a riddle, which was proposed to him by fome fishermen at a certain island called Io.

I AM inclined to think, indeed, that the antients in general were fuch admirers of this art, as to infcribe riddles upon their tomb-ftones, and that not fatisfied with puzzling the world in their life-time, they bequeathed enigmatical legacies to the public after their decease. My conjecture is founded upon an ancient infcription, which I will venture to quote to you, though it is in Latin, as your friend and neighbor the antiquarian will, I am perfuaded, be very glad of obliging you with a differtation upon it. Be pleased then to ask him, whether he does not think that the following infcription favors my fentiments :

VIATORES. OPTIMI.

HIS. NVGIS. GRYPHIS. AMBAGIBVSQVE.

MEIS. CONDONARE. POSCIMUS.

However

However this may be, it is certain that it was one of the great entertainments of the paftoral life, and therefore, if for no other reafon, highly deferving the attention of our modern Arcadians. You remember, I dare fay, the riddle which the shepherd Dametas proposes to Mænalcas in Dryden's Virgil:

Say where the round of heav'n, which allcontains,

To three fhort ells on earth our fight reftrains: Tell That, and rife a Phabus for thy pains.), This ænigma, which has exercised the gueffes of many a learned critic, remains yet unexplained: which I mention, not only as an instance of the wonderful penetration which is neceffary to render a man a complete adept in this most noble science, but as an incitement to you to employ your skill in attempting the folution.-And now, Timoclea, what will your grave friend fay, who reproached you, it feems, for your riddling genius, when he shall find you are thus able to defend your favorite ftudy by the fublime examples of kings, commentators, and poets? I am, &c.

LETTER