SOURCE: Resnick, Robert B. “Thomas Fuller: Doctor of the Sugar-Coated Pill.” Lock Haven Review (series 2) 6, no. 1 (1964): 53-68.

In the following essay, Resnick explains Fuller's method of combining wit and didacticism in his writings.

Doctor Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), who wrote and preached in a milieu of ingenious English writers, was one of the most palatable preceptors of his day. He is thought of primarily as a character writer; yet his genres included biographies, essays, meditations, sermons, histories, protests, prefaces, and poetry. Whatever the nature of his topic, Fuller's imagination brought new and unexpected treatment to almost every theme. His wit may be defined as a reaching toward truth and morality through the use of such devices as antithesis, aphorism, word-play, understatement, retort and association—almost all of which are built around the homely image. Frequently he combines these devices. Instead of pursuing point, ornament, and ingenuity as ends, in...