s in such
attempts as to turn the baser metals into gold, to discover perpetual
motion, to find a cure for certain malignant diseases, and to navigate
the air.

From morning to night we are being perpetually brought face to face with
puzzles. But there are puzzles and puzzles. Those that are usually
devised for recreation and pastime may be roughly divided into two
classes: Puzzles that are built up on some interesting or informing
little principle; and puzzles that conceal no principle whatever--such as
a picture cut at random into little bits to be put together again, or the
juvenile imbecility known as the "rebus," or "picture puzzle." The former
species may be said to be adapted to the amusement of the sane man or
woman; the latter can be confidently recommended to the feeble-minded.

The curious propensity for propounding puzzles is not peculiar to any
race or to any period of history. It is simply innate in every
intelligent man, woman, and child that has ever lived, though it is
always showing itself in different forms; whether the individual be a
Sphinx of Egypt, a Samson of Hebrew lore, an Indian fakir, a Chinese
philosopher, a mahatma of Tibet, or a European mathematician makes little
difference.

Theologian, scientist, and artisan are perpetually engaged in attempting
to solve puzzles, while every game, sport, and pastime is built up of
problems of greater or less difficulty. The spontaneous question asked by
the child of his parent, by one cyclist of another while taking a brief
rest on a stile, by a cricketer during the luncheon hour, or by a
yachtsman lazily scanning the horizon, is frequently a problem of
considerable difficulty. In short, we are all propounding puzzles to one
another every day of our lives--without always knowing it.

A good puzzle should demand the exercise of our best wit and ingenuity,
and although a knowledge of mathematics and a certain familiarity with
the methods of logic are often of great service in the solution of these
things, yet it sometimes happens that a kind of natural cunning and
sagacity is of considerable value. For many of the best problems cannot
be solved by any familiar scholastic methods, but must be attacked on
entirely original lines. This is why, after a long and wide experience,
one finds that particular puzzles will sometimes be solved more readily
by persons possessing only naturally alert faculties than by the better
educated. The best players of such p