75.
We know how, by the addition of a single letter, our cares can be softened into a caress; but in the following enigma a still more contradictory result follows, without the addition or alteration of a letter, by a mere separation of syllables:—
None can locate the subject of my riddle,
For all the world would seek its place in vain;
Cut it asunder almost in the middle,
And in our very midst its place is plain.
An aching void, an absolute negation,
Into the opposite extreme it breaks;
With just a gap to mark their new relation
Each letter still the same position takes.
76. MULTUM IN PARVO
What two letters describe in nine letters the position of one who has been left alone in his extremity?
77. A CHANGE OF SEX
“Oh! would I were a man,” cried a schoolmistress, “that I might always teach boys.”