- foon. Every virtue, they say, has its kindred vice;
every pleasure, I am sure, has its neighboring disgrace. Mark carefully, therefore, the line that separates them, and carefully stop a yard short, than step an inch beyond it.
I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it you; and you may the easier have it, as I give you none that is inconsistent with your pleasure. [Same date.]
False Wit.—To do justice to the best English
and French authors; they have not given in to that
false taste; they allow no thoughts to be good, that
are not just, and founded upon truth. The age of
Louis XIV. was very like the Augustan; Boileau,
Molière, La Fontaine, Racine, etc., established the
true, and exposed the false taste. The reign of King
Charles II. (meritorious in no other respect) banished
false tastes out of England, and proscribed
puns, quibbles, acrostics, etc. Since that, false wit
has renewed its attacks, and endeavored to recover
its lost empire, both in England and France, but
without success; though, I must say, with more success
in France than in England: Addison, Pope and
Swift, having vigorously defended the rights of
good-sense, which is more than can be said of their
contemporary French authors, who have of late had
