Discreto
has been mentioned before in the
Spectator
, being well-known in England through a French translation. See note on p. 303, ante [
of
]. Gracian, in Spain, became especially popular as a foremost representative of his time in transferring the humour for conceits—
cultismo
, as it was called—from verse to prose. He began in 1630 with a prose tract, the Hero, laboured in short ingenious sentences, which went through six editions. He wrote also an