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N° 1. Thursday, September 14, 1710.

Nefcia mens hominum fati fortifque futuræ,
Et fervare modum, rebus fublata fecundis!
Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum
Intactum Pallanta, & cum fpolia ifta diemque
Oderit.

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HE defign of this work is to cenfure the writings of others, and to give all perfons a rehearing, who have fuffered under any unjuft fentence of the Examiner. As that Author has hitherto proceeded, his paper would have been more properly entitled the Executioner at leaft his examination is like that which is made by the rack and wheel. I have always admired a Critic that has difcovered the beauties of an author, and never knew one who made it his bufinefs to lafh the faults of other writers, that was not guilty of greater himself;

as the hangman is generally a worse malefactor, than the criminal that fuffers by his hand. To prove what I say, there needs no more than to read the annotations which this Author has made upon Dr. Garth's Poem, with the preface in the front, and a riddle at the end of them: To begin with the firft: Did ever an advocate for a party open with fuch an unfortunate affertion? The collective body. of the Whigs have already engroffed our riches: That is, in plain English, the Whigs are poffeffed of all the riches in the nation. Is not this giving up all he has been contending for these fix weeks? Is there any thing more reafonable, than that those who have all the riches of the nation in their poffeffion, or if he likes his own phrafe better, as indeed I think it is ftronger, that those who have already engroffed our riches, fhould have the management of our public Treafure, and the direction of our fleets and armies ? But let us proceed: Their Reprefentative the Kit-Cat have pretended to make a Monopoly of our fenfe. Well, but what does all this end in? If the author means any thing it is this, That to prevent fuch a Monopoly of fenfe, he is refolved to deal in it himself by retail, and fell a pennyworth of it every week. In what follows, there is fuch a fhocking familiarity both in his ralleries and civilities, that one cannot long be in doubt who is the Author. The remaining part of the preface has fo much of the pedant, and fo little of the converfation of men in it, that I fhall pafs it over, and haften to the riddles, which are as follows.

The

S

The RID D L E.
RIDDLE.

PHINX was a monster, that would eat
Whatever ftranger she could get ;

Unless his ready wit difclos'd

The fubtle riddles fhe propos'd.

Oedipus was refolv'd to go,

And try what ftrength of parts could do:
Says Sphinx, On this depends your fate:
Tell me what animal is that,

Which has four feet at morning bright?
Has two at noon, and three at night?
'Tis man, faid he, who weak by nature,
At first creeps, like his fellow-creature,
Upon all four: As years accrue,
With sturdy fteps he walks on two :
In age, at length, grown weak and fick,
For his third leg adopts the stick.
Now in your turn, 'tis juft, methinks,
You should refolve me, Madam Sphinx,
What ftranger creature yet is he,
Who has four legs, then two, then three;
Then lofes one, then gets two more,
And runs away at last on four.

The first part of this little myftical Poem is an old riddle, which we could have told the meaning of, had not the Author given himself the trouble of explaining it: but as for the expofition of the second, he leaves us altogether in the dark. The riddle runs thus: What creature is it that walks upon four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs at night? This he folves, as our forefathers have done for these two thousand

years;

years; and not according to Rabelais, who gives another reason why a man is faid to be a creature with three legs at night. Then follows the fecond riddle: What creature, fays he, is it that first uses four legs, then two legs, then three legs; then lofes one leg, then gets two legs, and at laft runs away upon four legs? Were I difpofed to be fplenetic, I fhould ask if there was any thing in the new garland of riddles fo wild, fo childish, or fo flat: But though I dare not go fo far as that, 1 fhall take upon me to fay, that the Author has ftolen his hint out of the garland, from a riddle which I was better acquainted with than the Nile when I was but twelve years old. It runs thus, Riddle my riddle my ree, what is this? Two legs fat upon three legs, and held one leg in her hand; in came four legs, and fnatch'd away one leg up ftarted two legs, and flung three legs at four legs, and brought one leg back again. This Enigma, joined with the foregoing two, rings all the changes that can be made upon four legs. That I may deal more ingenuoufly with my Reader than the above-mentioned. Enigmatift has done, I fhall prefent him with a key to my riddle; which upon application he will find exactly fitted to all the words of it: one leg is a leg of mutton, two legs is a fervant-maid, three legs is a joint-ftool, which in the Sphinx's country was called a tripod; as four legs is a dog, who in all nations and ages has been reckoned a quadruped. We have now the expofition of our first and third riddles upon legs; let us here, if you pleafe, endeavour to find out the meaning of our fecond, which is thus in the Author's words :

What

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