Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/440

 The Wit of the Fables and Religions of the antient World is well-nigh consumed; they have already serv'd the Poets long enough, and it is now high time to dismiss them, especially seeing they have this peculiar Imperfection, that they were only Fictions at first: Whereas Truth is never so well express'd or amplify'd, as by those Ornaments which are true and real in themselves.

The Wit which is rais'd from Civil Histories, and the Customs of Countries, is solid and lasting: The Similitudes it affords are substantial, and equal to the Minds of Men, being drawn from themselves and their own Actions. Of this the wittiest Nations have always made the greatest use; their Writings being adorn'd with a Wit that was free of their own Cities, consisting of Examples, and Apothegms, and Proverbs, deriv'd from their Ancestors. This I alledge, because this kind is scarce yet begun in the English Language; though our own Civil History abounds as much as any other, with great Examples and memorable Events, which may serve for the Ornament of Comparison.

The Manners, and Tempers, and Extravagances of Men are a standing and eternal Foundation of Wit: This if it be gather'd from particular Observations, is call'd Humour; and the more particular they are, they are still the pleasanter. In this kind I may well affirm that our Nation excels all others, as our Dramatic Poetry may witness.

The Wit that may be borrowed from the Bible is magnificent, and, as all the other Treasures of Knowledge it contains, inexhaustible. This may be us'd and allow'd without any danger of Prophaneness. The Antient Heathens did the same; they made their Divine Rh