342. Take two numbers, such that the square of the first, plus the square of the second, shall equal 8; while the first, plus the product of the first and second, shall equal 6.
N. B.—If any choose to work this out algebraically, it will be found to be no trifling puzzle. See Merry’s Museum for 1856.
343.
What’s that the poor’s most precious friend,
Nor less by kings respected—
Contrived to pierce, contrived to rend,
And to the sword connected.
It draws no blood, and yet doth wound;
Makes rich, but ne’er with spoil;
It prints, as earth it wanders round,