as the hangman is generally a worfe malefactor, than the criminal that fuffers by his hand. To prove what I fay, 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. Īs not this giving up all he has been contending for thefe 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 engrossed our riches, fhould have the management of our publick 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 railleries 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 pass it over, and haften to the riddles, which are as follows. The SPE The RIDDLE. PHINX was a monfter, that would eat The fubtle riddles fhe propos'd. And try what ftrength of parts could do: Which has four feet at morning bright? 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 fecond, 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; yeers; 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 disposed to be splenetick, 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, I fhall take upon me to fay, that the Author has ftollen 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 fore-going 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 present 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 tripode; 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 please, endeavour to find out the meaning of our fecond, which is thus in the Author's words; What What stranger creature yet is he, 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 so 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 ftaff in Queen Jocasta's court, which the Author calls his third leg. Now it fo happened that the Treafurer 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? VOL. II. N But 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 last 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 verse, and to fignify nothing; and that runs, in the next line, fhould be rides. I fhall therefore reftore the true ancient reading of this riddle, after which it will be able to explain it felf. Oedipus fpeaks: Now in your turn, 'tis juft methinks, Who has four legs, then two, then three ; I muft now inform the Reader, that Thebes was on the continent, fo that it was easy for a man to ride out of its dominions on horseback, an advantage that a British Statefman would be deprived of. If he would run away, he must do it in an open boat; for to say of an Englishman in this fenfe, that he runs away on all four, would be as abfurd as to fay, he clapped fpurs to his horfe |