What franger creature yet is he
That has four legs, then two, then three;
Then lofes one, then gets two more,

And runs away at last on four?

This riddle, as the Poet tells us, was propofed by Oedipus to the Sphinx, after he had given his folution to that which the Sphinx had propofed to him. This Oedipus, you must understand, though the people did not believe it, was fon to a King of Thebes, and bore a particular grudge to the Tr-r of that Kingdom; which made him fo bitter upon H. L., in this Enigma.

What ftranger creature yet is he,

That has four legs, then two, then three?

By which he intimates, that this great man at Thebes being weak by nature, as he admirably expreffes it, could not walk as foon as he was born, but, like other children, fell upon all four when he attempted it; that he afterwards went upon two legs, like. other men; and that in his more advanced age, he got a white staff in Queen Focafta's court, which the Author calls his third leg. Now it fo happened that the Treasurer fell, and by that means broke his third leg, which is intimated by the next words, Then lofes one -Thus far I think we have travelled through the riddle with good fuccefs,

What stranger creature yet is he

That has four legs, then two, then three:

Then lofes one.

VOL. II.

But now comes the difficulty that has puzzled the whole town, and which I must confess has kept me awake for these three nights;

Then gets two more,

And runs away at laft on four.

I at last thought the treasurer of Thebes might have walked upon crutches, and fo ran away on four legs, viz. two natural and two artificial. But this I have no authority for; and therefore upon mature confideration do find that the words (Then gets two more) are only Greek expletives, introduced to make up the verfe, and to fignify nothing; and that runs, in the next line, fhould be rides. I shall therefore reftore the true ancient reading of this riddle, after which it will be able to explain itself.

Oedipus fpeaks:

Now in your turn, 'tis just 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 gains two more,
And rides away at last on four?

I must now inform the Reader, that Thebes was
on the continent, fo that it was eafy for a man
to ride out of its dominions on horseback, an ad-
vantage that a British Statesman would be de-
prived of.
If he would run away, he must do it
in an open boat; for to fay of an Englishman in
this sense, that he runs away on all four, would
be as abfurd as to fay, he clapped fpurs to his

horfe

horfe at St. James's gate, and galloped away to the Hague.

Before I take my farewel of this fubject, I fhall advise the Author for the future to speak his meaning more plainly. I allow he has a happy talent at doggrel, when he writes upon a known fubject: where he tells us in plain intelligible language, how Syrifca's ladle was loft in one hole, and Hans Carvel's finger in another, he is very jocular and diverting; but when he wraps a lampoon in a riddle, he muft confider that his jeft is loft to every one, but the few merry wags that are in the fecret. This is making darker fatires than ever Perfius did. After this curfory view of the Examiner's performance, let us confider his remarks upon the Doctor's. That general piece of rallery which he paffes upon the Doctor's confidering the Treafurer in feveral different views, is that which might fall upon any Poem in Waller, or any other writer who has diverfity of. thoughts and allufions: and tho' it may appear a pleafant ridicule to an ignorant Reader, is wholly groundless and unjuft. I do likewife diffent with the Examiner, upon the phrafes of paffions being poifed, and of the retrieving merit from dependence, which are very beautiful and poetical. It is the fame cavilling fpirit that finds fault with that expreffion of the pomp of peace among the woes of war, as well as of offering unask'd. As for the Nile, how Icarus and Phaeton came to be joined with it, I cannot conceive. I must confefs they have been formerly used to represent the fate of rafh ambitious men; and I cannot imagine why the Author should deprive us of thofe particular Similes for the future. The next Criticifm upon

the

the stars, seems introduced for no other reason but to mention Mr. Bicker ftaff, whom, the Author every where endeavours to imitate and abuse. But I fhall refer the Examiner to the frog's advice to her little one, that was blowing itself up to the fize of an Ox:

The allufion to the victim may be a Gallimatia in French_politics, but is an apt and noble allufion to a true English fpirit. And as for the Examiner's remarks on the word bleed (though a man would laugh to fee impotent malice fo little able to contain itself) one cannot but observe in them the temper of the Banditti whom he mentions in the same paper, who always murder where they rob. The lait obfervation is upon the line, Ingratitude's a weed of every clime. Here he is very much out of humour with the Doctor for having called that the weed, which Dryden only terms the growth, of every Clime. But for God-fake, why fo much tenderness for ingratitude.

But I fhall fay no more. We are now in an age wherein impudent affertions muft pafs for arguments and I do not question but the fame, who has endeavoured here to prove that he who wrote the Difpenjary was no Poet, will very fuddenly undertake to fhew, that he who gain'd the Battle of Blenheim is no General.

i

Thursday,

N° 2

G

Tharfday, September 21.

I

Arcades ambo,

Et cantare pares

Virg.

Never yet knew an Author that had not his admirers. Bunyan and Quarles have paffed thro' feveral editions, and please as many Readers, as Dryden and Tillotson. The Examiner had not written two half-fheets of paper before he met with one that was aftonished at the force he was mafter of, and approaches him with awe, when he mentions State-fubjects, as incroaching on the province that belonged to him, and treating of things that deferved to pass under his pen. The fame humble author tells us, that the Examiner can furnish mankind with an Antidote to the poifon that is fcattered through the nation. This crying up of the Examiner's Antidote, puts me in mind of the first appearance that a celebrated French quack made in the ftreets of Paris. A little boy walked before him, publishing, with a fhrill voice, Mon pere guerit toutes fortes de maladies, My father cures all forts of diftempers: To which the Doctor, who walked behind him, added in a grave and compofed manner, L'enfant dit vrai, The Child Lays true.

That the Reader may fee what party the Author of this Letter is of, I fhall fhew how he fpeaks