The Form of ÆNIGMAS

The Form of ÆNIGMAS consists in the words which, whether they be in prose or verse, contain either some description, a question, or a prosopopeia. The last kind are the most pleasing, inasmuch as they give life and action to things which otherwise have them not. To

make an enigma, therefore, two things are to be pitched on which bear some resemblance to each other, as the sun and a monarch, or a ship and a house; and on this resemblance is to be raised a superstructure of contrarieties, to amuse and perplex. It is easier to find great subjects for enigmas in figures than in words, inasmuch as painting attracts the eye and excites the attention to discover the sense. The subjects of enigmas in painting are to be taken either from history or fable: the composition here is a kind of metamorphosis, wherein, e. g. human figures are changed into trees, and rivers into metals. It is essential to enigmas, that the history or fable under which they are presented be known to every body, otherwise it will be two enigmas instead of one; the first of the history or fable, the second of the sense in which it is to be taken. Another essential rule of the enigma is, that it only admits of one sense. Every enigma which is susceptible of different interpretations, all equally natural, is so far imperfect. What gives a kind of erudition to an enigma, is the invention of figures in situations, gestures, colours, &c. authorized by passages of the poets, the customs of artists in statues, basso-relieves, inscriptions, and medals.

As to the solution of enigmas, it may be observed, that those expressed by figures are more difficult to explain than those consisting of words, because images may signify more things than words can; so that to fix them to a particular sense, we must apply every situation, symbol, &c. and without omitting a circumstance. As there are few persons in history or mythology without some particular character of vice or virtue, we are, before all things, to attend to this character, in order to divine what the figure of a person represented in a painting signifies, and to find what agreement this may have with the subject whereof we would explain it. Thus, if Proteus be represented in a picture, it may be taken to denote inconstancy, and applied either to a physical or moral subject, whose character is to be changeable, e. g. an almanack, which expresses the weather, the seasons, heat, cold, storms, and the like. The colours of figures may also help to unriddle what they mean; white, for instance, is a mark of innocence, red of modesty, green of hope, black of sorrow, &c. When figures are accompanied with symbols, they are less precarious; these being, as it were, the soul of enigmas, and the key that opens the mystery of them.