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are able to produce, by inversion or transposition
in their own or any Soreign
tongue, in any living or dead language.
Thus is the poor word forced to undergo
a most dreadful inquisition, to be
east into a variety of forme, and examined
under every different shape and
posture it is able mandate ;itis potto
the rack and mangled and tortured
without merey, neither is it suffered to
have a moment's reft, so long as there
is the least sanSe of life, or drop os blood
remaining in if
Ifthe three or four initial letters as
that word. happen in the Same or. for to
be three or four initial letters of some
other word. whether belonging to land,
sea. air, or fire, to animal or vegetable,
to any art, science, or profession, or
whether belonging to the French, Greek.
Latin, or our own mother tongue, and
if the things themselves couched under
those words, be as wide from, and as
Contrary to each other as light is to
darkness, and truth lo falsehood, yet
yon are to take two or three quarters
os that (nor thing but) word o, which
in like manner added to the other ports
osorher words, which happen to agree
in the fame letters, till yon have by
this means gone through the whole
word, and then after joining and cementing
all these ports, thus collected,
into one word, you are called upon
and invhed to a wild goose chaste to
trace not and extract the wonderful
mystery that lyes covered and enveloped
under this cloud of words; and
ahrs renigma. thus formed and constructed,
when covered over with a
poetical dress, and tagged with rbyme,
is thenceforth dignified and distinguished
by the stile and title of a Btbiar ;
a name as properly deriv'd from Res,
and apply'd to Such conundrums, as
Locus is from Lux, quia nou facet.
^ tfe hes.e eoferted int f w ffebastr my of she
ouiskers fme to us, mid aiate gan.easly resetted
os are thaouoa.^P^fod,]
fy trddesor oseCe, Uie me iafirmed is the
v^t oyprssia,]
M a G a 2 i h ' ^ o f M a G a 2 i N ^ ,
An example will sully illustrate this
alfait : The word Birmingham after it
is properly dissected and disjointed will
appear thus Brr-saing ham ; then say,
Take three fourths of a creature which ma.
ny admire.
That ia often confined in eaffse of wise;
Three soarsths of era herb that a gar 'en doth
yield ^rhe held ;
And a term aafed by husbandman ploughing
With abut part of a Swine tb 1 is now maieh
in fashion, ^Enr^iik nasi-es .
and e town yon' 1 direr aver in tins foe
From which poetical composition, is
you are eridowed with a proper degree
os sagacity, arid a great share os potience.
you may at length extract the Se^
veral constituents os the word Biroeing^
/•am, and aster having unravelled ta.e
important mystery, and forced the citadel,
notwithstanding all its deep infrenchmen
Li, you may then in en etta-
Sy of joy, cry, ^t^Sprce, and be amy
rewarded for your p-ins and troue
by the satisfaction of so happv a
discovery. A modern Rebus therefore
is a slat contradiction, pretending to
deal with things, when all the while it
is concerned only in leteers, Syllables,
and words ; it is nothing but a meet
shadow of a species of false wis ; it
has no foundation in nature, but only
in the meer arbitrary formation and
casual Similitude of words ; its Suasisls
ence is entirely precarious and liable to
be lost and destroyed, together with
the words on which if deperids ; do
but offer to translate a Ribut into anotber
language and the charm is immediately
dlfsoived, and the wit, whatever
there was. is all vanished into
Smoke.—I would therefore recommend
the study and composition of the meo^
dern Rebut to men whore knowledge is
confined to words, and no ways conversant
m things. whose senses lead
them to thrash, Sift, and grind worm
down to powder, and thenee to wort
them up again into whatever Sorm or
similitude tney please, l would likewise
recommend to their care the Anagram
an Acrestiek and fuller tl.em in
weather