INTRODUCTION
pleasures, and neglects that variety which is so good for the
brain.
And there is really a practical utility in puzzle-solving. Regular
exercise is supposed to be as necessary for the brain as for the
body, and in both cases it is not so much what we do as the doing
of it from which we derive benefit. The daily walk recommended
by the doctor for the good of the body, or the daily exercise for
the brain, may in itself appear to be so much waste of time ;
but it is the truest economy in the end. Albert Smith, in one
of his amusing novels, describes a woman who was convinced
that she suffered from " cobwigs on the brain." This may be a
very rare complaint, but in a more metaphorical sense, many of us
are very apt to suffer from mental cobwebs, and there is
nothing equal to the solving of puzzles and problems for
sweeping them away. They keep the brain alert, stimulate the
imagination and develop the reasoning faculties. And not only are
they useful in this indirect way, but they often directly help us by
teaching us some little tricks and " wrinkles" that can be applied in
the affairs of life at the most unexpected times, and in the most
unexpected ways.
There is an interesting passage in praise of puzzles in the quaint
letters of Fitzosborne. Here is an extract : " The ingenious study
of making and solving puzzles is a science undoubtedly of most
necessary acquirement, and deserves to make a part in the meditation
of both sexes. It is an art, indeed, that I would recommend to the
encouragement of both the Universities, as it affords the easiest and
shortest method of conveying some of the most useful principles of
logic. It was the maxim of a very wise prince that 'he who
knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign' ; and I desire
you to receive it as mine, that ' he who knows not how to riddle
knows not how to live/ "
How are good puzzles invented ? I am not referring to acrostics,
xiv
«fe
