Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

AN ENIGMA.
For the Alexandria Gazette.
If, Ladies, you can leave but Dice, to hear
Of one as war'ring as yourselves, draw near:
For I like Woman, pitiless, deceive
The Man whom in my bosom I receive;
Delude his confidence, my trust forego,
And plunge him in the deep abyss of woe.
In my amphibious being you will find
Both animal and vegetable join'd,
To form a shape almost as broad as long;
Yet none can say that I am fashion'd wrong:
And tho' my body is but ribs and skin,
It has been prov'd to hold a soul within.
Man, from my birth, I for my master own'd
And to the last, am still his servant found:
I furnish him with pleasure and with prey,
Tho' he vouchsafes me neither food nor pay;
Alternately each other's weight we bear,
Yet I no trouble take, nor danger share.
As caterpillars turn to butterflies,
Their legs turn useless, skim along the skies;
So metamorphos'd, I my legs have lost,
Yet by my change another motion boast.
Great Cesar was no stranger to my fame,
Then tell me fair ones, if you can, my name.
By all these contraries, that I'm no less
Than one of woman-kind, perhaps you'll guess;
But, ladies, I must ask your pardon there,
I am not quite so false, nor near so fair.
C.