INTRODUCTION
READERS of " The Mill on the Floss" will remember that
whenever Mr. Tulliver found himself confronted by any little
difficulty he was accustomed to make the trite remark, "It's a
puzzling world." There can be no denying the fact that we are
surrounded on every hand by posers, some of which the intellect of
man has mastered, and many of which may be said to be impossible
of solution. Solomon himself, who may be supposed to have been as
sharp as most men at solving a puzzle, had to admit "there be
three things which are too wonderful for me ; yea, four which I
know not : the way of an eagle in the air ; the way of a serpent
upon a rock ; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea ; and the
way of a man with a maid."
Probing into the secrets of Nature is a passion with all men ;
only we select different lines of research. Men have spent long
lives 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
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