singing birds, which never visit thy noxious shade, sport on my boughs; my fruit is offered to the gods, and rejoices men; and, when the decay of Nature approaches, I shed my leaves over the funeral of the falling year, and am well contented, not to stand a single exemption from the mournful desolation I see everywhere around me." The Pine was unable to frame a reply; and the philosopher turned away his steps, rebuked and humbled. RIDDLES. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-I presume you have now all come home for the holydays, and that the brothers, and sisters, and cousins, papas and mammas, uncles and aunts, are all met cheerfully round a Christmas fire, enjoying the company of their friends and relations, and eating plumpudding and mince-pie. These are very good things; but one cannot always be eating plumpudding and mince-pie. The days are short, and the weather bad, so that you cannot be much abroad; and I think you must want something to amuse you. Besides, if you have been employed as you ought to have been, at school, and if you are quick and clever, as I hope you are, you * *This word, in our country, has obtained a signification, different from that which it has above, and which is its proper meaning. It is used in England, only in its correct accepta will want some employment for that part of you which thinks, as well as that part of you which eats; and you will like better to solve a riddle, than to crack a nut. Finding out riddles is the same kind of exercise to the mind, which running, and leaping, and wrestling, in sport, are to the body. These are of no use in themselves,— they are not work, but play; but they prepare the body, and make it alert and active, for any thing it may be called to perform, in labor or war. So does the finding out of riddles, especially if they are good, give quickness of thought, and a facility of turning about a problem every way, and viewing it in every possible light. When Archimedes, coming out of the bath, cried, in transport, "Eureka!"* (I have found it!) he had been exercising his mind, precisely in the same manner as you will do, when you are searching about for the solution of a riddle. tion, meaning fit, suitable, convenient, proper, dexterous, skilful, ingenious, adroit. But in this country, it bears the signification of good-natured, well-disposed, honest, possessing a mild or agreeable disposition. — J. W. I. * Archimedes, the most celebrated among the ancient geometricians, was born at Syracuse, in Sicily, about two hundred and eighty-seven years before the birth of our Saviour. Hiero, king of Syracuse, suspecting that an artist had added some common metal to a crown, which he had directed to be made of pure gold, requested Archimedes to ascertain the fact. He discovered the method of solving the question, while he was in the bath, as mentioned in the text. Archimedes was the inventor of several of the most important mechanical powers, such as the compound pulley, the endless screw, &c.-J. W. I. And pray, when you are together, do not let any little Miss or Master say, with an affected air, "O! do not ask me; I am so stupid, I never can guess. They do not mean, you should think them stupid and dull; they mean to imply, that these things are too trifling to engage their attention. If they are employed better, it is very well; but if not, say, "I am very sorry, indeed, you are so dull; but we that are clever and quick will exercise our wits upon these; and, as our arms grow stronger by exercise, so will our wits." Riddles are of high antiquity, and were the employment of grave men, formerly. The first riddle, that we have on record, was proposed by Samson,* at a wedding feast, to the young men of the Philistines, who were invited upon the occasion. The feast lasted seven days; and, if they found it out within the seven days, Samson was to give them thirty suits of clothes, and thirty sheets; and, if they could not guess it, they were to forfeit, the same to him. The riddle was ; "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." He had killed a lion, and left its carcass; on returning, soon after, he found a swarm of bees had made use of the skeleton as a hive, and it was full of honeycomb. Struck with the oddness of the circum stance, he made a riddle of it. They puzzled about it, the whole seven days, and would not * See fourteenth chapter of Judges. — J. W. I. have found it out, at last, if his wife had not told them. Ac The Sphinx was a great riddle-maker. cording to the fable, she was half a woman and half a lion.* She lived near Thebes, and to every body that came, she proposed a riddle; and, if they did not find it out, she devoured them. At length Edipus came, and she asked him, "What is that animal, which walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night." Edipus answered, "Man: in childhood, which is the morning of life, he crawls on his hands and feet; in middle age, which is noon, he walks erect on two; in old age, he leans on a crutch, which serves for a supplementary third foot." The famous wise men of Greece did not disdain to send puzzles to each other. They are also fond of riddles in the East. There is a pretty one in some of their tales : "What is that *The Sphinx was itself a riddle, and is supposed to have had an astronomical allusion to the season of the year when the River Nile begins to rise. Our young readers, who have studied astronomy, know something about the twelve figures called the signs of the Zodiac. The sun apparently moves through these signs, passing through one of them, every month. One of them is called the Lion, (Leo,) and the next to it, the Virgin, (Virgo.) About the time when the sun leaves the sign Leo, and enters that of Virgo, the Nile begins to rise; and this union of the Lion and the Virgin explains one meaning of the Egyptian Sphinx. There is now, in Egypt, a large stone figure of a Sphinx, about one hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty-three feet high. It is composed of one stone, with the exception of the paws. The fabulous animal, spoken of in the text, lived in Thebes, in Greece. Edipus was son to the king of Thebes. — J. W. I. tree, which has twelve branches, and each branch thirty leaves, which are all black on one side and white on the other ?" The tree is the year; the branches the months; the leaves, black on one side and white on the other, signify day and night. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, also, had riddles, some of which are still preserved in a very ancient manuscript. A riddle is a descripton of a thing without the name; but as it is meant to puzzle, it appears to belong to something else, than what it really does, and often seems contradictory; but, when you have guessed it, it appears quite clear. It is a bad riddle, if you are at all in doubt, when you have found it out, whether you are right or not. A riddle is not verbal, as charades, conundrums, and rebusses, are: it may be translated into any language, which the others cannot. Addison, would put them all in the class of false wit: but Swift, who was as great a genius, amused himself with making all sorts of puzzles; and, therefore, I think you need not be ashamed of reading them. It would be pretty entertainment for you, to make a collection of the better ones; for many are so dull, that they are not worth spending time about. I will conclude, by sending you a few, which will be new to you. I. I often murmur, yet I never weep; My mouth is wide, and larger than my head, |