An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule | Page 3

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.
In the present facsimile edition, for reasons of space, only the

Introduction and the main body of the Essay are reproduced. Although
Morris once remarked to David Hume that he wrote all his books "for
the sake of the Dedications" (Letters of David Hume ed. Greig, I, 380),
modern readers need not regret too much the omission of the fulsome
32 page dedication to Walpole (The Earl of Orford). Morris insists at
the beginning that the book was inspired by a fervent desire of
"attempting a Composition, independent of Politics, which might
furnish an occasional Amusement" to his patron. The praise which
follows, in which Walpole is said to lead "the Empire of Letters," is so
excessive as to produce only smiles in twentieth century readers.
Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily curbing
the theatre, his aid to commerce and industry, indeed almost every act
of his administration, is lauded to the skies. The Church of England, in
which "the Exercise of Reason in the solemn Worship of God, is the
sacred Right, and indispensible Duty, of Man," receives its share of
eulogy. In every connection the Tories are violently attacked.
The Dedication ends in a peroration of praise for Walpole's public
achievements which "shall adorn the History of Britain," and for his
"Private Virtues and all the _softer Features_" of his mind. His home of
retirement is referred to in the lines of Milton:
"Great Palace now of Light! Hither, as to their Fountain, other Stars
Repairing, in their golden Urns, draw Light; And here [sic] the
Morning Planet gilds her Horns."
[P.L. 7. 363-66]
"Thus splendid, and superior, your Lordship now flourishes in
honourable Ease, exerting universal Benevolence...." But in dedications,
as in lapidary inscriptions, as Dr. Johnson might have agreed, a writer
need not be upon oath.
At the end of the Essay Morris reprinted two essays from The Spectator,
Nos. 35 and 62, and William Congreve's "An Essay concerning
Humour in Comedy. To Mr. Dennis" (Congreve's Works, ed. Summers,
III, 161-68). Since these are readily available, they have not been
included in this edition.

The present facsimile is made from a copy owned by Louis I. Bredvold,
with his kind permission.
James L. Clifford
Columbia University
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Note: The ARS edition included an errata slip,
reproduced here. Where text was changed or deleted, the original is
given in brackets. Corrections to the Essay itself are listed after the
ARS errata.]
Please paste the following in your copy of Corbyn Morris's Essay
towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit....
(ARS, Series One, No. 4)
ERRATA
INTRODUCTION:
page 5, line 1--"word apparently omitted" should be inclosed in
brackets.
page 5, line 6--"not identified" should be inclosed in brackets.
page 6, line 5--the first "of" should be omitted. ["modern readers need
not regret too much of the omission of the fulsome 32 page
dedication"]
page 6, line 12, should read "Walpole is praised for not curbing the
press while necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce".
["Walpole is praised for not curbing the theatre; his aid to commerce"]
page 6, line 25--"sic" should be inclosed in brackets, as also "P.L. 7.
363-66" in the next line.

[ ESSAY ON WIT:
page viii: Whence in Aristotle such Persons are termed "epidexioi",
dexterous Men The Greek may read "epidezioi"; the letter-form is
ambiguous.
page 14: ... without any Reference to their whimsical Oddities or
_Foibles_; Text reads Oddistie.
page 20 and elsewhere: "Biass" is an attested variant spelling; it has not
been changed.
page 25: "teizes" (modern "teases") is an attested variant spelling; it has
not been changed.
page 40: --It is therefore no wonder that Signior Don Quixote of la
Mancha ... Text reads Quoxote.