Page:Comical adventures of the late Mr James Spiller.pdf/3

 The comical Adventures, &c. 3

tortions of thoughts do we meet with? If they ſpeak nonſenſe, they believe they are talking humour, and when they have drawn together a ſcheme of inconſiſtant ideas, they are not able to read it over to themſelves without laughing. Theſe poor gentlemen endeavour to gain themſelves the reputation of wits and humouriſts, by ſuch monſtrous conceptions as almoſt qualifies them for Bedlam: Not conſidering, that humour ſhould always be under the check of reaſon, and that it requires the direction of the niceſt judgement, by ſo much the more as it indulges itſelf in the moſt boundleſs freedoms. There is a kind of nature to be obſerved in this ſort of compoſition, as well as in all others, and a certain regularity of thought within, muſt diſcover the writer to be a man of ſenſe, at the ſame time that he appears altogether given up, to caprice. For my part, when I read the deſirious mirth of an unſkilful author, I cannot be ſo barbarous as to divert myſelf with it; but am rather apt to pity the man that laughs at any thing he writes.-It is indeed,