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Tin V relate that Sphinx was a monster, variously formed, having 

 the face and voice of a virgin, the wings of a bird, anil the talons of a 

 griffin. She resided on the top of a mountain, near the &amp;lt;ity Thebes, 

 and also beset the highways. Her manner was to lie in ambush, and 

 seize the travellers, and having them in her power, to propose to them 

 certain dark and perplexing riddles, which it was thought she received 

 from the Muses, ami if her wretched captives could not solve and 

 interpret these riddles, she with great cruelly fell upon them, in their 

 hesitation and confusion, and tore them to pieces. This plague having 

 reigned a long time, the Thebans at length offered their kingdom to 

 the man &amp;gt;vho could interpret her riddles, there being no other way to 

 subdue her. (Kdipus, a penetrating and prudent man, though lame in 

 his feet, excited by so great a reward, accepted the condition, and with 

 a good assurance of mind, cheerfully presented himself l&amp;gt;efore the 

 monster, who directly asked him, &quot;What creature that was, which 

 being born four- footed, afterwards became two-footed, then three-footed 

 and lastly four-footed again? (Kdipus, with presence of mind, 

 replied it was man, who, upon his first birth and iufant state, crawled 

 upon all fours in endeavouring to walk ; but not long after went 

 upright upon his two natural feet; again, in old age walked three- 

 footed, with a stick ; and at last, growing decrepit, lay four-footed 

 confined to his bed ; and having by this exact solution obtained the 

 victory, he slew the monster, and, laying the carcass upon an ass, led 

 her away in triumph ; and upon this he was, according to the agree 

 ment, made king of Thebes. 



EXPLANATION. This is an elegant, instructive fable, and seem* 

 invented to represent science, especially as joined with practice. Foi 

 science may, without absurdity, be called a monster, being strangely 

 j^azcd at and admired by the ignorant and unskilful. Her figure and 

 form is various, by reason of the vast variety of subjects that science 

 considers ; her voice and countenance are represented female, by 

 reason of her gay appearance and volubility of sj&amp;gt;cech ; wings arc 

 added, because the sciences and their inventions run and fly about in A 

 moment, for knowledge, like light communicated from one torch to 

 another, is presently caught and copiously diffused ; sharp and hooked 

 talons arc elegantly attributed to her, because the axioms and 

 arguments of science enter the mind, lay hold of it, fix it down, and 

 keep it from moving or slipping away. This the sacred philosopher 

 observe. 1 when he said, &quot; The words of the wise arc like goads or nails 

 driver, far in. 1 Again, all science seems placed on high, as it were on 

 the tops of mountains that arc hard to climb ; for science is justly 

 imagined a sublime and lofty thing, looking down upon ignorance 

 from an eminence, and at the same time taking an extensive view on 



