Anagrams
and
Acrosticks
.
But to return to Punning. Having pursued the History of a Punn, from its Original to its Downfal, I shall here define it to be a Conceit arising from the use of two Words that agree in the Sound, but differ in the Sense. The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test, you may pronounce it true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment, you may conclude it to have been a Punn. In short, one may say of a Punn, as the Countryman described his Nightingale, that it is
vox et præterea nihil,
a Sound, and nothing but a Sound. On the contrary, one may represent true Wit by the Description which
Aristinetus
makes of a fine Woman; when she is
dressed