Page:Comical adventures of the late Mr James Spiller comedian at Epsom, in England.pdf/3

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 en- deavour to gain themſelves the repu- tation of wits and humouriſts, by ſuch monſtrous conceptions as almoſt qualifies them for Bedlam: Not con- ſidering, 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 bound- leſs 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, moſt diſcover the writer to be a man of ſenſe at the ſame time that he appears altogether given up to ca- price. For my part, when I read the delirious mirth of an unſkilful au- thor, l cannot be ſo barbarous as to divert myſelf with it; but am rather apt to pity the man that laughs at a- ny thing he writes It is indeed,