34.

full of slander and gall; striking even at magistrates, parents, friends, and cases that deserved pity.

After speaking he always laugh'd first, and generally alone; and whilst he droll'd and scoff'd at the false steps of others, weary'd the company with his own.

35. At length he met with his match, which mortified

him extreamly: For Buffoon, forsooth, could no more endure to be out fool'd, than Nero to be out fiddled.

36. Father. Some use their wits as Bravoes wear stellettoes, not for defence but mischief; or like Solomon's madman, cast firebrands, arrows, and death, and say, Am not I in sport.1

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38.

39.

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Few know how and when to throw out a pleasant word, with such regard to modesty and respect, as not to transgress the bounds of wit, good nature, or good breeding.

"All that's obscene, doth always give offence,

And want of decency, is want of sense."

Liberties in conversation that pass the bounds of good nature, honesty, and respect, degenerate into scurrility, scandal, and ill manners.

Respect and complaisance forbid rallying the

1 Prov. 26. 18, 19.

C

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fair sex; and for theirs to rally ours, is exposing themselves to blunt repartees.

Persons of merit ought not to be rallyed, even though some defect could be perceived amongst their vertues, because no mortal is perfect.

Young people should be spared, lest they be discouraged from coming into company of their betters-Want of experience pleads indulgence for our first slips.

Old age is too venerable for raillery, and should be reverenced.

44. To laugh at deformed persons is inhumane, it

45.

not impious; we are not our own carvers: what perfection the best have, is not the effect of their own care, but of divine goodness.

The unfortunate are subjects of compassion, not of raillery.

46. Raillery is only proper when it comes with a good grace, in a manner which both pleases and instructs. That which stirs up our Laughter, most commonly excites our contempt; to please, and to make merry, are two very different talents.

47.

48.

49.

Drolls and Buffoons, whilst they think to make sport for others, commonly become laughing-stocks themselves, to all but those who pity them.

He who thinks he is by his dignity above jest,

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and will not take a repartee, ought not to banter others.

Scomms and derision unbridle fear, and make the peasant brave the prince.

Augustus seeing one like himself, asked him, in scoff, if his mother was never at Rome; the lad answer'd, no, but my father was.

Utter nothing that may leave any ungrateful impression, or give the least umbrage of a spiteful intent.

He whose jests make others afraid of his wit, had need be afraid of their memory.

54. It's more grievous to be ridicul'd than beaten. Contempt pierces to the quick, and revenge stops at nothing; it hardens men into a brutal despising of death, so that they may see their enemies fall in company.

55.

CRITIC.

Son. A CRITIC, wise enough, in his own conceit, to correct the magnificat, pretending to exquisite niceness, censur'd Cicero for being too verbose, and Virgil for using rustic language.

56. His large stock of ill-nature, and the malicious pleasure he took in fault-finding, made him never look upon any thing, but with a design of passing sentence upon it.

57.

Plato he told us, in a decisive tone, was neither fertile nor copious-Aristotle neither solid nor substantial-Theophrastus neither smooth nor

agreeable.

hat Voiture was dull-Corneille a stranger to passions-Racine starch'd and affected— iere jejune-Boileau little better than ary.

a

hat Shakespear wanted manners-Ben. Johnson a pedant-Congreve a laborious writerh but an indifferent imitator of Boileau. hat Dryden's Absolom and Achitophel wanted ar of thought, purity of language, and aptness propriety of expression; nor were many of lisions to be allow'd, or accents and pauses observed.

instance being required, Criticone, who nly dipp'd into that poem, scratched his head, ell a cursing his memory.

ather. By a Critic was originally understood d judge; but now, with us, it signifies not han an unmerciful fault-finder, two steps above and a great many below a wiseman.

laws of civility oblige us to commend what, son, we cannot blame.-Men should allow excellencies, were it but to preserve a : opinion of their own. But

the distemper of wou'd-be-thought-wits, I envious curiosity to examine, censure, and thers works, as if they imagin'd it gave 'em