the original signification of the Saxon word signifies wisdom, and therefore a witty was anciently a wise man, and so late as the reign of Elizabeth a man of great wit signified a man of great judgment; and indeed we still say, if a man has the use of his reason, that he is in his wits, and if the contrary, that he is out of his wits. Serious wit, therefore, is neither more nor less than quick wisdom, or according to Pope,—

True wit is nature to advantage drest,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest. Second, as to comic wit, this is the general acceptation of wit amongst us, and is of the easiest kind, for it is much more easy to raise a laugh, than to excite admiration by quick wisdom: however, comic wit has great merit, as the ancients allow; but, perhaps, in this the moderns excel them. This wit in writing consists in an assimilation of remote ideas oddly or humorously connected, as in the poem of Hudibras, &c., but more particularly comic wit is applied to speaking and conversation, and the definition of Pope may be adopted, "It is a quick conception and an easy delivery." In order to have wit for this purpose, the principal requisites are, a good imagination, a fund of ideas and words, and a fluency of speech; but all these will be insufficient, unless the speaker know how to adapt his remarks and replies to particular persons, times, and occasions, and indeed if he would be truly witty, he must know the world, and be remarkably quick in suiting the smallest word or turn of an expression to the subject.-Bennet.

DCCCXLIX.

As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every minute of time; and as it would be great folly to shoe horses (as Nero did) with gold, so it is to spend time in trifles.Mason.

DCCCL.

There are three difficulties in authorship;-to write any thing worth the publishing-to find honest men to publish it-and to get sensible men to read it. Literature

has now become a game; in which the booksellers are the kings; the critics, the knaves; the public, the pack; and the poor author, the mere table, or thing played upon.-Colton.

DCCCLI.

Pleasure is nothing but the intermission of pain, the enjoying of something I am in great trouble for till I have it.-Selden.

DCCCLII.

When your pecuniary wants sours the temper of an intimate, depend on this, that he thinks money is the best of your qualities.-Zimmerman.

DCCCLIII.

A common civility to an impertinent fellow, often draws upon one a great many unforeseen troubles; and if one doth not take particular care, will be interpreted by him as an overture of friendship and intimacy.-Addison.

DCCCLIV.

The reason why so few marriages are happy, is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.-Swift.

DCCCLV.

There are few men so accomplished, or so necessary, but have some failings or other, which will make their friends bear the loss of them with the greater patience. Bruyere.

DCCCLVI.

As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends. Dress is a table of your contents.-Lavater.

DCCCLVII.

He seldom lives frugally, who lives by chance. Hope is always liberal, and they that trust her promises, make little scruple of revelling to-day, on the profits of tomorrow. Johnson.

DCCCLVIII.

A story should, to please, at least seem true, Be apropos, well told, concise, and new: VOL. I.

P

And whenso'er it deviates from these rules,

The wise will sleep, and leave applause to fools.
Stilling fleet.

DCCCLIX.

A man may plead not guilty, and yet tell no lie; for by the law, no man is bound to accuse himself; so that when I say not guilty, the meaning is, as if I should say by way of paraphrase, I am not so guilty as to tell you; if you will bring me to trial, and have me punished for this you bring to my charge, prove it against me.-Selden.

DCCCLX.

It is usually said by grammarians, that the use of language is to express our wants and desires; but men who know the world hold, and I think with some show of reason, that he who best knows how to keep his necessities private, is the most likely person to have them redressed; and that the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.-Goldsmith.

DCCCLXI.

When upon a trial a man calls witnesses to his character, and those witnesses only say, that they never heard, nor do not know any thing ill of him; it intimates at best a neutral and insignificant, though innocent character. Chesterfield.

DCCCLXII.

As a taste for humour is purely natural, so is humour itself; neither is it a talent confined to men of wit or learning; for we observe it sometimes among common servants, and the meanest of the people, while the very owners are often ignorant of the gift they possess.Swift.

DCCCLXIII.

To make a book, is no less a trade than to make a clock, something more than wit is necessary to form an author. A certain magistrate was advancing by his merits to the first dignities of the long robe; he was a man of address and experience, but must print a treatise of

morality, which had a quick sale only for its ridiculousness.-Bruyere.

DCCCLXIV.

The worst inconvenience of a small fortune is that it will not admit of inadvertency. Inadvertency, however, ought to be placed at the head of most men's yearly accounts, and a sum as regularly allotted to it as to any other article.-Shenstone.

DCCCLXV.

It is success that colours all in life:

Success makes fools admired, makes villains honest: All the proud virtue of this vaunting world

Fawns on success, and power, howe'er acquired. Thomson.

DCCCLXVI.

The unhappy affectation of being wise rather than honest, witty than good-natured, is the source of most of the ill habits of life. Such false impressions are owing to the abandoned writers of men of wit, and the awkward imitation of the rest of mankind.-Steele.

DCCCLXVII.

I am provoked at the contempt which most historians show for humanity in general: one would think by them that the whole human species consisted but of about a hundred and fifty people, called and dignified (commonly very undeservedly too) by the titles of emperors, kings, popes, generals, and ministers.—Chesterfield.

DCCCLXVIII.

Great contemporaries whet and cultivate each other: and mutual borrowing and commerce make the common riches of learning, as it does of the civil government.Dryden.

DCCCLXIX.

Themistocles, the great Athenian general, being asked whether he would rather choose to marry his daughter to an indigent man of merit, or to a worthless man of estate, replied, that he should prefer a man without an estate

to an estate without a man. The worst of it is, our modern fortune-hunters are those who turn their heads that way, because they are good for nothing else. If a young fellow finds he can make nothing of Coke and Littleton, he provides himself with a ladder of ropes, and by that means very often enters upon the premises.-Hughes.

DCCCLXX.

It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of the spider. "Vive quidem, pende tamen, improba, dixit." (Ovid Metam.)-Swift.

DCCCLXXI.

Fools take ingenious abuse for kindness, and often make one in the laugh that is carrying on at their own expense.-Zimmerman.

DCCCLXXII.

We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and be come really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or reversion that we have in view.-Addison.

DCCCLXXIII.

A man will no more carry the artifice of the bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands will continue to tumble when he should walk on his feet.-Johnson.

DCCCLXXIV.

The world is full of slander; and every wretch that knows himself unjust, charges his neighbour with like passions; and by the general frailty hides his own.E. Moore.

DCCCLXXV.

In walks of humour, in that cast of style,

Which, probing to the quick, yet makes us smile: