tion does not go so far; he has, as it were, a coarse sieve.
Everything is being reformed ; Music was formerly noise, satires were lampoons, and where we now say, “Be so good as to allow me,” one used in olden times to crack a man over the head.
The book had the effect which good books usually have: it made the fools greater fools, the intelligent more intelligent, and left the remaining thousands as they were.
If mankind suddenly took to virtue, many thousands would inevitably be reduced to starvation.
That everything in the way of a jest is buffoonery must, I suppose, be chiefly maintained by superannuated professors of law or divinity. They imagine that whatever is said with a solemn face or in a solemn style is of itself necessarily solemn, although it is the rule for at least nine out of ten farces to be played with a serious air. More may often be learnt from the humorous works of gifted men than from a whole host of serious books. Such writers often produce with a smile what they mean in earnest, but what has not yet been sufficiently examined for a serious man to adopt. Others, however, may well use it in earnest.
Common people are brought to ruin because of the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the scholar
