Circumftances of Time and Place, there is no Man has generally fo little of that Talent, as he who is a Wit by Profeffion : What he says, instead of rifing from the Occafion, has an Occafion invented to bring it in. Thus he is new for no other Reason, than that he talks like no body else; but has taken up a Method of his own, without Commerce or Dialogue with other People.

Mr. Locke has an admirable Reflection upon the Difference of Wit and Judgment; whereby he endeavours to fhew the Reason why they are not always the Talents of the fame Perfon. His Words are as follow: And hence, perhaps, may be given fome Reafon of that common Obfervation, that Men who have a great deal of Wit and prompt Memories, bave not always the clearest Judgment, or deepest Reason: For Wit lying most in the Affemblage of Ideas, and putting those together with Quickness and Variety, wherein can be found any Refemblance or Congruity, thereby to make up pleasant Pictures and agreeable Vifions in the Fancy. Judgment, on the contrary, lies quite on the other Side; in feparating carefully, one from another, Ideas wherein can be found the leaft Difference, thereby to avoid being misled by Similitude, and by Affinity, to take one Thing for another. This is a Way of proceeding quite contrary to Metaphor and Allufion; wherein, for the most

part,

part, lies that Entertainment and Pleafantry of Wit, which strikes fo lively on the Fancy, and is therefore fo acceptable to all People.

This Definition of Wit and Judgment must be acknowledged to be very Philofophical; but still it gives us a juft Idea how far our Wit may go, and keep its Quality; and how effential Judgment is to its Regulation. I fhall purfue this Theme no further than in a few fupplemental Rules, for the Ufe and Application, of our Wit in Company: We fhould endeavour to wear out the Vein of Pedantry and Affectation, to have our Sense esteem'd to its Merit: We fhould check in ourselves all Vanities of glit tering on the Imagination of another with the Luftre of our Parts; we fhould learn to think with the Wife, but talk with the Vulgar; to keep our fublime Notions to ourfelves, and converfe in the common received Sentiments of Mankind: To believe, that though nothing fo much gains upon the Affections as extempore Eloquence, yet that we very rarely meet with any who excel in it; that if we refolve to pleafe, we should never speak, to gratify any particular Vanity and Paffion of our own, but always with a Design either to divert or inform the Company: That we should talk extremely little of ourselves, to avoid putting on an Air of Wifdom by speaking in Proverbs, or deciding

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Contro

Controverfies with fhort Sentences; and to take care to be fometimes filent, on a Subject where every one is fatisfy'd we could fpeak well; for by this, we fhall often be thought no lefs knowing in other Matters, where, perhaps, we are wholly ignorant. The Obfervation of these few Rules, I am fatisfied, will fecure real Wit from Odium, and establish the Reputation of an imaginary one, where Conduct alone conceals Folly.

Now, as all the World, more or less, as I have before obferv'd, are Pretenders to Wit, fo every one is ambitious of putting in his Claim to a Share of Humour It is, indeed, much easier to defcribe what is not Humour, than what it is; and very difficult to define it otherwife than COWLEY has done Wit, by Negatives. Among all Kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry, than in Works of Humour, as there are none in which they are more ambitious to excel. It is not an Imagination that teems with Monsters, an Head that is filled with extravagant Con ceptions, that furnish out Productions of Humour; fo neither are unreasonable Dif tortions of the Countenance, whimfical Gesticulations of the Body, and an abfurd Set of furprizing and incongruous Notions, to be esteem'd fuch in Converíation.

True

True Humour muft always lie under the Check of Reafon; and it requires the Direction of the nicest Indgment, by fo much the more as it indulges itself in the most boundless Freedoms. In fhort, it must confift in a Pleafantry deriv'd from Nature; in Vivacity and Mirth without Affectation, bounded by Truth, and fupported by good Senfe. For this Reafon, a Coxcomb can never arrive to an Humourist: He may give himself aukward and ftrain'd Airs, run into a Length of Oddities in Behaviour, and pretend to be obftinate in fome particulars; yet cannot go out of his own Character. It is a very just and a common Obfervation upon the Natives of this Ifland, that in their different Degrees, and in their feveral Profeffions and Employments, they abound as much, and, perhaps, more, in good Senfe, than any People; and yet, at the fame Time, there is fcarce an Englishman, of any Life and Spirit, that has not fome odd Cast of Thought, fome original Humour, that diftinguishes him from his Neighbour. This national Mark is vifible among us in every Rank and Degree of Men, from the Persons of the first Quality and politest Sense, down to the rudeft and moft ignorant of the People. Every Mechanic has a particular Caft of Head, and Turn of Wit, or fome uncommon Whim, as a Characteristic that diftinguishes

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distinguishes him from others of his Trade, as well as from the Multitudes that are upon a Level with him.

I confefs, by an agreeable Singularity of Temper, we may furnish out a perpetual Change of Entertainment to ourselves, and diverfify all our Converfations with a Variety of Mirth; but as I would have a Gentleman not too confcious of his Wit, fo neither would I have him ftrain too hard in Purfuit of Humour. It often throws People unawares into a Form of Buffoonery, and runs them into an habitual Carriage, that favours of Pedantry and Affectation. We fhould rather be content to follow Nature, and be guided by Senfe, than endeavour to entertain at the Expence of our Characters; and chufe to be confidered as Men of found Reason, rather than be counted Prodigies of Humour.