"Of Wit" in the

    Weekly Register

   for July 22, 1732, ventured his opinion (reprinted in the

    Gentleman's Magazine

   , II, 861-862):

    Wit is a Start of Imagination in the Speaker, that strikes the Imagination of the Hearer with an Idea of Beauty common to both; and the immediate Result of the Comparison is the Flash of Joy that attends it; it stands in the same Regard to Sense, or Wisdom, as lightning to the Sun, suddenly kindled and as suddenly gone....

   But for the most part wit was becoming an expression of mirth or ridicule in which fancy was primarily involved; at its best wit was coupled with politeness and elegance in conversation, and at its worst with silliness and extravagance, or with indecency and impiety.

   The essay from the

    Weekly Register

   is one of a large number of little histories of wit, which appear through the age of Dryden and Pope and which attempt to relate developments in wit to

    changes

   in fashion, religion, polities, social manners, and taste. These are rudimentary but important expressions of the idea that literature is conditioned by changing circumstances and social customs in the lives of the people from whom it springs.

   The

    Essay on Wit

   , 1748, is reprinted here, by

    permission

   , from a copy in the library of the University of Illinois. Flecknoe's

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