Sentiments are always ready at hand: And while
the Fancy is full of Images collected from innumerable
Objects and their different Qualities, Relations and
Habitudes, it can at pleasure dress a common Notion
in a strange, but becoming Garb; by which, as before
observ’d, the same Thought will appear a new
one, to the great Delight and Wonder of the Hearer.
What we call Genius results from this particular happy
Complexion in the first Formation of the Person that
enjoys it, and is Nature’s Gift, but diversify’d
by various specifick Characters and Limitations, as
its active Fire is blended and allay’d by different
Proportions of Phlegm, or reduc’d and regulated
by the Contrast of opposite Ferments. Therefore
as there happens in the Composition of a facetious
Genius a greater or less, tho still an inferior degree
of Judgment and Prudence, and different Kinds of Instincts
and Passions, one Man of Wit will be vary’d and
distinguish’d from another. That Distinction
that seems common to Persons of this Denomination,
is an inferior Degree of Wisdom and Discretion; and
tho these two Qualities, Wit and Discretion, are almost
incapable of a friendly Agreement, and will not, but
with great Difficulty, be work’d together and
incorporated in the Constitution of any Individual;
yet this Observation is not so conspicuous in any,
as in those, whose native Complexion comes the nearest
to a Subversion and Absence of Mind, tho it should
never degenerate into that distemper’d Elevation
of the Spirits: Nothing is more common, than to
see Persons of this Class always Think Right, and always
Act Wrong; admirable for the richness, delicacy, and
brightness of their Imaginations, and at the same
Time to be pity’d for their want of Prudence
and common Sense; abounding with excellent Maxims and
instructive Sentiments, which however are not of the
least Use to themselves in the Conduct of their Lives.
And hence it is certain, that tho the Gentlemen of
a pleasant and witty Turn of Mind often make the industrious
Merchant, and grave Persons of all Professions, the
Subjects of their Raillery, and expose them as stupid
Creatures, not supportable in good Company; yet these
in their Turn believe they have as great a right,
as indeed they have, to reproach the others for want
of Industry, good Sense, and regular Oeconomy, much
more valuable Talents than those, which any mere Wit
can boast of; and therefore wise Parents, who from
a tender Concern for the Honour and Happiness of their
Children, earnestly desire they may excel in intellectual
Endowments, should, instead of refin’d Parts
and a Genius turn’d for pleasant Conversation,
wish them a solid Understanding and a Faculty of close
and clear Reasoning, these Qualifications being likely
to make them good Men, and the other only good Companions.