By Fits and Starts.
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise,
And even the best by fits what they despise.
—Pope.
What is Wit?
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought but ne’er so expressed.
—Pope.
Self-knowledge.—It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross is in our composition.
Fluent Speech.—The common fluency of speech in most men and most women, says Dean Swift, is owing to a scarcity of matter and scarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both; whereas common speakers have only one set of ideas and one set of words to clothe them in, and these are always ready at the mouth. So people come faster out of church when it is almost empty than when a crowd is at the door.