Printed for the Booksellers of Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America; and sold by T. Carnan
and F. Newbery, Jun. at Number 65, St.
Paul's Church Yard. 1778.
_The Public are desired to observe, that_ F. Newbery, _at the Corner
of_ St. Paul's Church-Yard _and_ Ludgate Street, _has not the least
Concern in any of the late_ Mr. John Newbery's _Entertaining Books for
Children; and, to prevent having paltry Compilation obtruded on them
instead of_ Mr. John Newbery's _useful Publications, they are desired
to be particularly careful to apply for them to_ T. Carnan and F.
Newbery, Jun. (_Successors to the late_ Mr. John Newbery) _at_ Number
65, near the Bar in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
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_PREFACE._
_The art of making riddles is so antique, that it bears date almost
with our earliest accounts of time, and is a diversion with which_
Sampson, _the strongest of all mankind, amused himself. Nor has it been
confined to common people, as a certain author supposes; for Kings, and
even some of the wisest of them, are said to have been adepts in the
science; for such was the ever-to-be-remembered King_ Solomon, _and
such was his friend_ Hiram _the King of_ Tyre.
Riddling, _if I am not mistaken, is the art of both_ dissembling _and_
undissembling, _and, if what a great Politician has asserted to be
true_, that he who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign,
_this art must be eminently useful to Princes, and their Ministers,
and not to them only, but to all those who are any ways connected with
courts, or concerned in political transactions; for as people in high
life do not always speak as they mean, nor promise what they intend
to perform; or, in other words, as_ dissembling _is held in such high
estimation among the Great, and practised with applause every day, the
art of_ undissembling, _should, I think, be called in to the aid of
those whose heads may render them subject to imposition.--A squeeze by
the hand is a dumb riddle, which may induce any one unskilled in this
art to dance attendance for years; while an adept takes the unmeaning
sign to pieces, and, like a_ Free-mason, _returns the compliment by_
another _squeeze, to let the Ænigmatist know that he is in the secret.
All Cyphers used by Politicians are Riddles; and were Ambassadors,
and those to whom Cyphers are sent, but skilled in this science, few
blunders would be made from that mystical manner of conveyance; for the
meaning, without a key, would be as obvious to them, as to the most
profound decypherer of them all._
_Not that I would have this science confined to political affairs;--
No, its utility is unbounded, and may be extended with propriety and
benefit to every part of life, and every branch of learning. It is a
kind of natural_ Logic, _which I should be glad to see adopted by our
Universities in the room of that jargon they at present make us of;
for as it consists in discovering truth under borrowed appearances, it
may prove of wonderful advantage to the Scholar in the pursuit of his
studies, by habituating the mind to separate all foreign ideas, and
consequently preserving it from that grand source of error, the being
deceived by false connections. And in common life how necessary is it
for a man to carry this sort of knowledge about him?--Every knave is
an Ænigma that you must unriddle before you can safely deal with him,
and every fool may be fathomed. What is making love but making riddles?
And what else are some of our treaties, and indeed some of our laws?
Even our gravestones can't tell the naked truth: tombs you see are sort
of riddles! a Politician is a walking Riddle; and so is a Physician and
his prescription a professed Ænigma, intended only to be solved by the
Apothecary.------This being the truth, then will any man tell me, that
the art of riddling is not of the utmost consequence to society?_
_I shall conclude this preface in the words of a great author_: As
this science contains the sum of all human policy, and as there is no
passage thro' the world without sometimes mixing with fools and knaves;
who would not chuse to be master of the ænigmatical art, in order, on
proper occasions, to be able to lead aside craft and impertinence from
their aim, by the convenient artifice of a prudent disguise?
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A