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Page 2
This was the man who at the age of thirty-three brought out _An Essay
towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire,
and Ridicule_. That it was ever widely read we have no evidence, but
at least a number of men of wit and judgment found it interesting.
Horace Walpole included it in a packet of "the only new books at all
worth reading" sent to Horace Mann, but the fulsome dedication
to the elder Walpole undoubtedly had something to do with this
recommendation. More disinterested approval is shown in a letter
printed in the _Daily Advertiser_ for 31 May 1744. Better than any
modern critique the letter illustrates the contemporary reaction to
the _Essay_.
Christ Church College, Oxford,
SIR:
I have examin'd the _Essay_ you have sent me for _fixing the true
Standards of Wit, Humour, &c._ and cannot perceive upon what
pretence the Definitions, as you tell me, are censured for
Obscurity, even by Gentlemen of Abilities, and such as in other
Parts of the Work very frankly allow it's Merit: the Definition
of Wit, which presents itself at first, you say is, particularly
objected to, as dark and involv'd; in answer to which I beg Leave
to give you my plain Sentiments upon it, and which I apprehend
should naturally occur to every Reader: In treating upon Wit, the
Author seems constantly to carry in his View a Distinction
between _This_ and _Vivacity_: there is a Lustre or Brilliancy
which often results from wild unprovok'd Sallies of Fancy; but
such unexpected Objects, which serve not to _elucidate_ each
other, discover only a Flow of Spirits, or rambling Vivacity;
whereas, says he, Wit is the Lustre which results from the
quick _Elucidation_ of one Subject, by the just and unexpected
Arrangement of it with another Subject.--To constitute _Wit_,
there must not only arise a _Lustre_ from the quick Arrangement
together of two Subjects, but the new Subject must be naturally
introduced, and also serve to _elucidate_ the original one: the
Word _Elucidation_, though it be not new, is elegant, and very
happily applied in this Definition; yet I have seen some old
Gentlemen here stumble at it, and have found it difficult to
persuade them to advance farther:--I have also heard Objections
made to the Words _Lustre_ and _Brilliancy_ of Ideas, though they
are Terms which have been used by the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, and
by elegant Writers of all Ages and Nations; and the Effect which
they express, is perfectly conceiv'd and felt by every Person of
true Genius and Imagination.
The Distinctions between _Wit_ and _Humour_, and the Reasons
why _Humour_ is more pleasurably felt than _Wit_, are new and
excellent: as is the Definition of an _Humourist_, and the happy
Analysis of the Characters of _Falstaff_, _Sir Roger de Coverly_,
and _Don Quixote_; But, as you say, the Merit of these Parts is
universally allowed; as well as the Novelty, and liberal Freedom
of the [word apparently omitted]; which have such Charms in my
Eye, as I had long ceased to expect in a Modern Writer.
I am, &c
25 May, 1744
J---- W----
[not identified]
If the "Gentlemen of Abilities" of the day found some of Morris's
definitions obscure, modern readers will find them more precise than
those of most of his predecessors. All who had gone before--Cowley,
Barrow, Dryden, Locke, Addison, and Congreve (he does not mention
Hobbes)--Morris felt had bungled the job. And although he apologizes
for attempting what the great writers of the past had failed to do, he
has no hesitation in setting forth exactly what he believes to be the
proper distinctions in the meanings of such terms as wit, humour,
judgment, invention, raillery, and ridicule. The mathematician and
statistician in Morris made him strive for precise accuracy. It was
all very clear to him, and by the use of numerous anecdotes and
examples he hoped to make the distinctions obvious to the general
reader.
The _Essay_ shows what a man of some evident taste and perspicacity,
with an analytical mind, can do in defining the subtle semantic
distinctions in literary terms. Trying to fix immutably what is
certain always to be shifting, Morris is noteworthy not only because
of the nature of his attempt, but because he is relatively so
successful. As Professor Edward Hooker has pointed out in an
Introduction to an earlier _ARS_ issue (Series I, No. 2), his is
"probably the best and clearest treatment of the subject in the first
half of the eighteenth century." It may be regretted that political
and economic concerns occupied so much of his later life, leaving him
no time for further literary essays.
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