pinsters, and he, she, or they may be secretly engaged, it will be
therefore cruel to excite hopes that may be disappointed; and that
as some well-informed Benedick of long experience may after supper
advise the bachelor to find the way to woman's heart--_vice
versa_, some deep-feeling wife or widow, by "pity moven," may,
perhaps, after supper advise the spinster the other way, which, in
public, is an impropriety manifestly to be avoided.

RULE XI. (_suggested by a lady_). That any lady, after supper, may
(if she please) ask any gentleman apparently diffident, or requiring
encouragement, to dance with her, and that no gentleman can of
course refuse so kind a request.

RULE XII. That no gentleman be expected to escort any lady home on
foot beyond a distance of three miles, unless the gentleman be
positive and the lady agreeable.

RULE THE LAST. That as the foregoing remarks and rules are intended,
in perfect good faith and spirit, to be considered general and not
personal, no umbrage is to be taken, and the reader is to bear in
mind the common and homely saying,--

"Always at trifles scorn to take offence,
It shows great pride and very little sense."

P.S.--To save trouble to both parties, this invitation be deemed
accepted, without the necessity to reply, unless refused within
twenty-four hours.

46. Evening Pastimes.

Among the innocent recreations of the fireside, there are few more
commendable and practicable than those afforded by what are severally
termed Anagrams, Arithmorems, Single and Double Acrostics, Buried
Cities, &c., Charades, Conundrums, Cryptographs, Enigmas, Logogriphs,
Puzzles, Rebuses, Riddles, Transpositions, &c. Of these there are such
a variety, that they are suited to every capacity; and they present
this additional attraction, that ingenuity may be exercised in the
_invention_ of them, as well as in their solution. Many persons
who have become noted for their literary compositions may date the
origin of their success to the time when they attempted the
composition of a trifling enigma or charade.

47. Acrostics.

The acrostic is a short poem in which the first letters of each line,
read collectively, form a name, word, or sentence. The word comes from
the Greek _akros_, extreme, and _stichos_, order or line. The acrostic
was formerly in vogue for valentine and l