The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

[For the Massachusetts Spy.]

ENIGMA.

From earth I came, by nature planted there,
And in that state a shapeless form I wear,
But art, with magic power and plastic skill,
Has render'd me subservient to her will.

My nature chang'd, and wrought in divers ways,
My use a taste for elegance displays.
The stately mansion of the rich and great,
Without my aid, would still be incomplete.

I deck the parlor, and I add a grace,
To each apartment in that spacious place.
To heal the sick I sometimes am employ'd,
Yet thousand lives by me have been destroy'd.

I lend my aid to form the splendid vase,
And costly mirror that reflects the face.
I'm hard and rough; of an unsightly hue
In its original; but then I'm soft and ductile, white like snow.
And all my native ugliness forego.

All this I am, but only change my sound.
And then in me an active verb is found,
That shows the act of happy swains, whenever
Unto the altar they conduct the fair.

By transposition may be found in me
The useful timber of a forest tree,
What gamesters do when they dispense the cards,
What merchants do in hope of rich rewards,
What owners do, when to a foreign shore
They send their ships to increase their ample store.

Transpose again, and then I shall be seen
A pleasant valley, cloth'd with verdant green
Although I'm small, and letters have but four.
Yet when disjoin'd I still am something more.

Dismiss my second, when, in very truth,
I shall appear in form of tender youth.
Dismiss my third, and then I plainly show
What's done to infants when they're learnt to go.

Dismiss my fourth, and then I shall be found
A piece of land enclos'd and fenc'd around.

M.