A DISSERTATION on Antient and Modern HISTORY. * * * * * ____ _Sapientia prima Stultiti‚ caruisse._ HOR. Epist. I. Lib. I. * * * * * _LONDON_: Printed for _T. Lownds_, Bookseller, at the _Bible_ and _Crown_, in _Exeter-Change_, in the _Strand_, 1748. * * * * * AN ESSAY ON WIT. A Gentleman who had some Knowledge in the human Heart, was consulted about a Tragedy which was going to be acted: He answer'd that there was so much Wit in the Piece that he doubted of its Success.--At hearing such a Judgment, a Man will immediately cry out, What! is Wit then a Fault, at a Time when every Body aims at having it, when nobody writes but to shew he has it; when the Publick applauds even false Thoughts, provided they are shining! Yes, 'twill doubtless be applauded the first Day, and grow tiresome the next. That which they call Wit, is sometimes a new Simile, sometimes a fine Allusion: Here 'tis the Abuse of a Word which presents itself in one Sense, and is understood in another; there a delicate Relation between two uncommon Ideas: 'Tis an extraordinary Metaphor; 'tis something which in an Object does not at first present itself, but nevertheless is in it; 'tis the Art, to unite two Things which were far from one another; to separate two which seem to be joined, or to set them in Opposition; 'tis the Art, of expressing but half the Thought and leaving the other to be found out. In short, I'd tell all the different Ways of shewing Wit, if I knew of any more. But all these Brightnesses (and I speak not of the false ones) agree not, or very seldom agree with a serious Work, which ought to be interesting. The Reason of it is, that 'tis then the Author that appears, and the Publick will see no body but the Hero. Moreover the Hero is always either in a Passion, or in Danger. Danger, and the Passions seek not Expressions of Wit. _Priam_ and _Hecuba_ don't make Epigrams, when their Children's Throats are cut and _Troy_ in Flames:--_Dido_ does not sigh in Madrigals, when she flies to the Pile upon which she's going to sacrifice herself:--_Demosthenes_ has no Prettinesses, when he animates the _Athenians_ to War; if he had, he'd be a Rhetorician indeed, instead of which he's a Statesman. If _Pyrrhus_ was always to express himself in this Stile: _'Tis true, My Sword has often reek'd in_ Phrygian _Blood, And carried Havock through your Royal Kindred: But you, fair Princess, amply have aveng'd Old_ Priam's _vanquish'd House: And all the Woes, I brought on them, fall short of what I suffer._ This Character wou'd not touch at all: 'Twou'd soon be perceiv'd, that true Passion seldom makes Use of such Comparisons, and that there is very little Proportion between the real Fires which consumed _Troy_, and the amorous Fires of _Pyrrhus_; between the Havock he made amongst _Andromache_'s Kindred and the Cruelty she shews him.