An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule (1744)

GENERAL EDITORS Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan Edward Niles Hooker, University of California, Los Angeles H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles ADVISORY EDITORS Emmett L. Avery, State College of Washington Louis I. Bredvold, University of Michigan Benjamin Boyce, University of Nebraska Cleanth Brooks, Yale University James L. Clifford, Columbia University Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota James Sutherland, Queen Mary College, London
INTRODUCTION
Christ Church College, Oxford,
Please paste the following in your copy of Corbyn Morris's Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit .... (ARS, Series One, No. 4)
ERRATA
AN ESSAY Towards Fixing the TRUE STANDARDS OF Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. To which is Added, an ANALYSIS Of the Characters of An Humourist, Sir JohnFalstaff, Sir Roger De Coverly, and Don Quixote . Inscribed to the Right Honorable Robert Earl of Orford.
By the Author of a LETTER from a BY-STANDER.
---- Jacta est Alea .
INTRODUCTION.
AN Attempt to describe the precise Limits of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire and Ridicule, I am sensible, is no easy or slight Undertaking. To give a Definition of Wit, has been declared by Writers of the greatest Renown, to exceed their Reach and Power; and Gentlemen of no less Abilities, and Fame, than Cowley, Barrow, Dryden, Locke, Congreve, and Addison, have tryed their Force upon this Subject, and have all left it free, and unconquered. This, I perceive, will be an Argument with some, for condemning an Essay upon this Topic by a young Author, as rash and presumptious. But, though I desire to pay all proper Respect to these eminent Writers, if a tame Deference to great Names shall become fashionable, and the Imputation of Vanity be laid upon those who examine their Works, all Advancement in Knowledge will be absolutely stopp'd; and Literary Merit will be soon placed, in an humble Stupidity, and solemn Faith in the Wisdom of our Ancestors.