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, anagrams,
charades, and that sort of thing, but to puzzles that contain an original
idea. Well, you cannot invent a good puzzle to order, any more than you
can invent anything else in that manner. Notions for puzzles come at
strange times and in strange ways. They are suggested by something we see
or hear, and are led up to by other puzzles that come under our notice.
It is useless to say, "I will sit down and invent an original puzzle,"
because there is no way of creating an idea; you can only make use of it
when it comes. You may think this is wrong, because an expert in these
things will make scores of puzzles while another person, equally clever,
cannot invent one "to save his life," as we say. The explanation is very
simple. The expert knows an idea when he sees one, and is able by long
experience to judge of its value. Fertility, like facility, comes by
practice.

Sometimes a new and most interesting idea is suggested by the blunder of
somebody over another puzzle. A boy was giv