56 HOME AMUSEMENTS.
RIDDLE CXVII.
BEGOTTEN, and born, and dying with noise,

The terror of women, the pleasure of boys ;
Like the fiction of poets concerning the wind,
I’m chiefly unruly when strongest confined,
For silver and gold I don’t trouble my head,
But all I delight in are pieces of lead;
Except when I trade with a ship or a town,
Why then I make pieces of iron go down.
One property more I would have you remark,
No lady was ever more fond of a spark ;
The moment I get one, my soul’s all on fire,
IT roar out my joy, and in transport expire.

 

RIDDLE CXVIII.

AM the perfection of art and industry, formed

with mathematical precision; and, Proteus-like,
take every form and colour. J adorn the palaces of kings;
Iam found in the shop of the meanest artizan: the
representative of a prince, and the plaything of a
child; a polisher; a badge of office; and a concealer
of secrets.