render husbandry a work of difficulty. Before his time the ground stood in no need of culture:

Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva coloni, &c.

Ille malum virus serpentibus addidit atris.

To relieve themselves from these mischiefs brought upon them by Jupiter, mankind had recourse to various inventions:

Tum variæ venere artes.

And this their opposition to the will of Jupiter, which, in the opinion of the poet, was no less than impious, prevailed over all obstacles, and made the art of tillage easier than Jupiter at first intended it should be.

Improbus.

-Labor omnia vincit

Parallel to this, is that passage of Horace,

Necquicquam Deus abscidit.

Prudens oceano dissociabiles
Terras, si tamen impia

Non tangenda rates transiliant vada.

The sailors are here called impious, because in passing the seas they opposed the will of Jupiter, who designed they should have been non tangenda, 'impassable.'

MARONIDES.

1749, March.

VI. On the Rebus and Enigma.

MR. URBAN,

No small number of your friends and correspondents, I observe, are employed about that species of the Ænigma, or Riddle, called a Rebus; for no sooner has one part of them be enracking their invention to envelope some plain name in a dark and puzzling colour; but others are immediately exerting their sagacity to decypher it, and trying to crack the shell: and you, Sir, from the benignity of your temper, are disposed to gratify both parties, at least so far as you are able, by inserting in your monthly entertainment their innocent amusements, for amusements they are, and innocent,

which surely is saying a great deal; but I may add, for the pleasure and satisfaction of their admirers, that they are withal very ancient. For passing by the monkish ages, which hardly deserve the name of antiquity, and that large harvest which the heralds afford, and of which enough may be read in Camden's Remains, there want not instances of these allusions, this sporting with words, this mixture of words and things, even in the remotest times. To give a few examples:

66

History tells us, that Cyrus the Great was nursed by a bitch, that is, as I apprehend it, his nurse's name was Spaco, which, in the language of the Medes, as Herodotus informs us, signified a bitch; and so it does at this day in the Hyrcanian tongue, according to Tanaq. Faber, in his commentary upon Justin, Lib. i. We have a similar example, and much better known, in the Roman history; the two brothers, Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf. See Livy, Lib. i. The truth was, that the good woman's name who took them to her breast was Lupa. Sunt," says Livy, "qui Larentiam, vulgato corpore, Lupam inter pastores vocatam putent: unde locum fabulæ ac miraculo datum." Lactantius makes great use of this confession of Livy, and thereupon reports the following Grecian story, very much to our purpose, of one Leana, who had been instrumental in destroying Hipparchus she was a strumpet, and because it was improper to erect a statue of a woman of her character in the temple, the Athenians placed the effigy of a lioness there, according to the import of her name.

Nobody needs desire a truer rebus than that of Virgil, Eclog. III.

Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum

Nascantur flores;

alluding to the hyacinth, which takes its name, as the fables relate, from Hyacinthus, a favourite youth, accidentally killed by Apollo. See Ruæus, or Dr. Martin, from whom it appears that the flower bore both the character of Hyacinth and of Ajax.

There is another as clear in the second book of that masterly piece, the Ethiopics of Heliodorus, a work which certainly deserves a better edition. It is the story of Chariclea and Theagenes, and the author very appositely introduces the priestess of Apollo delivering an oracle (and nothing could be better adapted to the manner of the ancient oracles) in these artificial and ambiguous terms, alluding to the composition of their respective names:

Την χαριν εν πρώτοις, αυταρ κλεος ύσατ' έχεσαν,
Φραζεσθ', ω Δελφοί, τον τε θεας γενετην.

Xagis, xλos, Chariclea.
Χάρις, κλεος,

Oias ying, Theogenes.

Sigonius has engraved and explained a coin of Julius Cæsar's, (which is indeed common enough) with an elephant upon it, because the word Cæsar in the Punic language, as is testified both by Servius and Spartian, denoted an elephant.

But what is most remarkable, some of the fathers of the church, called our Saviour xus, piscis, Tertullianus de Baptismo, p. 124, the letters of which word are severally the initials of Ιησες Χρισος θες υἱος σωτηρ.

And to name no more, of the same kind is that expression of the number of the beast, Rev. xiii. 18, which, ch. xv. 2, is called the number of his name, where the sublime author follows the ancient custom of representing the name by numerals, as on the contrary number was often expressed by artificial names. Thus the technical words Magas and Agatas meant the sun, because the component letters numerically taken amounted to 365, that is, 365 days, in which the sun finished his annual course. The Greek word Nuos, the river Nile, in like manner expresses the number 365, as is particularly taken notice of by the admirable author above-mentioned. Heliodorus, Lib. ix. This was according to the Greeks; for otherwise Malgas and Naxos, had an etymology and signification of their own. The Basilidian heretics were foud of these fictitious names, and were the coiners of that barbarous word Abraxas, by which, as St. Hierome thinks, they meant Mithras, and which, with its companions Malgas and Nanos is to be resolved thus:

MR. URBAN,

WHEREAS the Spectator* of glorious and immortal memory, has tried and convicted the Rebus of a complication of crimes, of ignorance, false taste, and folly; and condemned it for a spurious and unnatural excrescence of wit; in pursuance of which condemnation it ought immediately to have been banished these kingdoms, and never to have appeared here again.

And whereas, notwithstanding the censure and condemration it then received, it begins to make a fresh appearance and to meet with a kind reception and visible encouragement in your Magazine: it is therefore high time, in order to curb and restrain this growing evil, and to prevent the further effusion of all such spurious wit, and elaborate trifles, to enter into an inquiry after the origin and name, as well as the nature of a Rebus; and to bring it once more forth, and to expose it to open view, and to make a public example of it, that so they who are guilty of such a profanation of wit may be ashamed any longer to persist therein, and they who are yet innocent, may, by their example, learn to beware.

The word Rebus is taken from the ablative case plural of the noun Res, and in its literal sense denotes the intimation, or signification, a man gives of his opinion, affection, or intention, by things, instead of words, and the making material and visible objects the interpreters of our hearts, and the signs and tokens of the ideas which (without words) we would communicate to any of our fellow-creatures,

Where words are wanting, or where men of two different languages meet together; or where words either spoken or written are liable to be fished out, or intercepted; or where we are inclined to convey our minds in a manner more especially striking and emphatical; on these and all such like occasions, significant emblems and expressive signs are either absolutely necessary or highly convenient; and it many times so falls out that a visible model, a rude sketch, or imperfect delineation, causes a quicker apprehension, a deeper impression, and a stronger conviction than the most literal descriptions, or florid metaphors are able to produce. In any such case a Rebus was proper and beautiful, and fully answered the above-mentioned etymology of the word and end, and design for which it was made use of, and herein

*Vol. I. No, 59.

its true nature did consist; but afterwards models and copies of things, as well as originals, and gestures and actions, as well as sensible objects, came by use and custom to be reckoned in the same class, and to pass under the general denomination of a Rebus. To give you a few instances of these several kinds of a Rebus,—

When King Darius sent to the Scythians to demand earth and water, instead of a verbal reply, they sent him a bird, a frog, and a mouse, together with five arrows, leaving him to extract their answer from these symbols; and, as I remember, Buchanan, in his History of Scotland, tells us, that when a friend of Robert Bruce wanted to draw him away from the English court to Scotland, he sent him a pair of spurs and ten broad pieces.

Another kind of Rebus is either an actual model, or a representation in basso relievo, or a graphical delineation in shades and colours, of animals, rivers, trees, mountains, or castles, in the manner of the Egyptian hieroglyphics; where these copies are either carved, engraved, or painted; and the sense and meaning of the author is to be gathered from a judicious interpretation, and apt connection of these figures.

A third species of a Rebus is, when pregnant actions are performed, and gestures made use of, expressive and significant of the secret sentiments, advice, and admonition of the authors of them; under which class that action of Tarquin in striking off the heads of the most eminent poppies in his garden, will for ever remain an illustrious example.

To these three species of mental interpretation, or dumb expression, we freely allow the word Rebus to be truly and properly applied, and under these precise limits we absolutely confine and restrain the word. According, therefore, to this standard thus formed and established, let us now consider and examine the modern Rebus, so frequent in the magazines, and see how well it agrees and tallies therewith.

Now in order to the formation and construction of a modern Rebus, a word or name of some place, person, or object, must be sought out and made choice of, which when found and fixed upon, must be laid down and stretched forth in order for an anatomical dissection. It may consist of two, three, or four syllables, the more the merrier, then it must be disjointed and laid open in all its parts. If a compound, the several ingredients of that composition are to be separated one from another, to be laid apart and examined distinctly. If it be no compound, then it is to be resolved into its syllables, and afterwards into its simple elements; the vowels are to be considered in one light, the consonants in another;