As being loth to wear it out,
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays, or fo,

As men their best apparel do.

Hudibras, Canto 1.

Wit is of all the most elegant recreation: the image enters the mind with gaiety, and gives a fudden flash, which is extremely pleasant. Wit thereby gently elevates without ftraining, raifes mirth without diffolutenefs, and relaxes while it entertains.

Wit in the expreffion, commonly called a play of words, being a baftard fort of wit, is referved for the last place. I proceed to examples of wit in the thought; and firft of ludicrous images.

Falstaff, fpeaking of his taking Sir John Coleville of the Dale:

Here he is, and here I yield him; and 1 befeech your Grace, let it be book'd with the reft of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad elfe, with mine own picture on the top of it, Coleville kiffing my foot: to the which courfe if I be enforc'd, if you do not all fhew like gilt twopences to me; and I, in the clear fky of fame, o'erfhine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element, which fhew like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the Noble. Therefore let me have right, and let defert mount.

Second Part Henry IV. A&t iv. Sc. 6.

I knew, when seven juftices could not take up a quar

rel,

rel, but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an if; as, if you said so, then I faid fo; and they fhook hands, and fwore brothers; Your if is the only peacemaker; much virtue is in if.

Shakespeare.

For there is not through all Nature, another fo callous, and infenfible a member, as the world's pofteriors, whether you apply to it the toe or the birch.

Preface to a Tale of a Tub.

The war hath introduced abundance of polyfyllables, which will never be able to live many more campaigns. Speculations, operations, preliminaries, ambaffadors, palifadoes, communication, circumvallation, battalions, as numerous as they are, if they attack us too frequently in our coffeehouses, we shall certainly put them to flight, and cut off the rear.

Speaking of Difcord,

Tatler, N° 230.

She never went abroad, but he brought home fuch a bundle of monftrous lies, as would have amazed any mortal, but fuch as knew her; of a whale that had fwallowed a fleet of fhips; of the lions being let out of the Tower to deftroy the Proteftant Religion; of the Pope's being feen in a brandy-fhop at Wapping, &c.

Hiftory of John Bull, Part 1. Ch. 16.

The other branch of wit in the thought, namely, ludicrous combinations and oppofitions, may be traced through various ramifications. And, firft, fanciful caufes affigned that have no natural relation to the effects produced:

Lancafer.

Lancaft. Fare you well, Falstaff; I, in my condition, Shall better fpeak of you than you deserve.

[Exit.

Falstaff. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom. Good faith, this fame young fober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink doth fo overcool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-fickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards; which fome of us fhould be too, but for inflammation. A good fherris-fack hath a twofold operation in it: it afcends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, dull, and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehenfive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The fecond property of your excellent fherris is, the warming of the blood; which before cold and fettled, left the liver white and pale; which is the badge of pufillanimity and cowardice: but the fherris warms it, and makes it courfe from the inwards to the parts extreme; it illuminateth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty fpirits mufter me all to their captain, the heart, who, great, and puff'd up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage: and thus valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without fack, for that fets it a-work; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till fack commences it, and fets it in act and ufe. VOL. I. Bb Hereof

Hereof comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, fteril, and bare land, manured, hufbanded, and till'd, with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile fherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand fons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be to forfwear thin potations, and to addict themselves to fack.

Second Part of Henry IV. A& iv. Sc. 7.

The trenchant blade, toledo trufty,
For want of fighting was grown rufty,
And ate into itself, for lack

Of fome body to hew and hack,
The peaceful scabbard where it dwelt,
The rancor of its edge had felt;
For of the lower end two handful,
It had devoured, 'twas fo manful;
And fo much fcorn'd to lurk in case,
As if it durft not fhew its face.

Hudibras, Canto 1.

Speaking of phyficians,

Le bon de cette profeffion eft, qu'il y a parmi les morts une honnêteté, une difcrétion la plus grande du monde; jamais on n'en voit se plaindre du médecin qui

l'a tué.

Le medecin malgré lui.

Admirez les bontez, admirez les tendreffes,
De ces vieux efclaves du fort.

Ils ne font jamais las d'aquérir des richeffes,
Pour ceux qui fouhaitent leur mort.

Belinda. Lard, he has fo pefter'd me with flames and ftuff-I think I shan't endure the fight of a fire this twelvemonth.

Old Bachelor, Act 11. Sc. 8.

To account for effects by such fantastical causes, being highly ludicrous, is quite improper in any ferious compofition. Therefore the following paffage from Cowley, in his poem on the death of Sir Henry Wooton, is in a bad taste.

He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find,
He found them not fo large as was his mind.
But, like the brave Pellæan youth, did moan,
Because that Art had no more worlds than one.
And when he faw that he through all had past,
He dy'd, left he should idle grow at last.

Fanciful reafoning:

Falstaff. Imbowell'd!if thou imbowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me, and eat me to-morrow! 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me fcot and lot too. Counterfeit! I lie, I am no counterfeit; to die is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed.

First Part, Henry IV. Act 1. Sc. 10.