INTRODUCTION
puzzle games as chess and draughts are not mathematicians, though
it is just possible that often they may have undeveloped mathematical
minds.
It is extraordinary what fascination a good puzzle has for a great
many people. We know the thing to be of trivial importance, yet
we are impelled to master it, and when we have succeeded there is
a pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that are a quite sufficient
reward for our trouble, even when there is no prize to be won.
What is this mysterious charm that many find irresistible? Why
do we like to be puzzled ? The curious thing is that directly the
enigma is solved the interest generally vanishes. We have done it,
and that is enough. But why did we ever attempt to do it ?
The answer is simply that it gave us pleasure to seek the solution
—that the pleasure was all in the seeking and finding for their own
sakes. A good puzzle, like virtue, is its own reward. Man loves
to be confronted by a mystery—and he is not entirely happy until he
has solved it. We never like to feel our mental inferiority to those
around us. The spirit of rivalry is innate in man ; it stimulates the
smallest child, in play or education, to keep level with his fellows,
and in later life it turns men into great discoverers, inventors, orators,
heroes, artists and (if they have more material aims) perhaps
millionaires.
In starting on a tour through the wide realm of Puzzledom we do
well to remember that we shall meet with points of interest of a very
varied character. I shall take advantage of this variety. People so
often make the mistake of confining themselves to one little corner of
the realm, and thereby missing opportunities of new pleasures that
lie within their reach around them. One person will keep to
acrostics and other word puzzles, another to mathematical brain-
rackers, another to chess problems (which are merely puzzles on
the chess-board, and have little practical relation to the game of
chess), and so on. This is a mistake, because it restricts one's
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