greateft favour the company can do him is 
to feem to attend to fomething elfe. If he 
prefume to decide on the merit of a book, 
a fermon, a play, or an aftor, it is at leaft 
ten to one againft him, that he is wrong; 
becaufe a rational determination on thefe 
fubjecls requires a degree of knowledge to 
which a fchool boy can have no pretenfions. 
If he think proper to entertain the com- 
pany with a goodjlory, it is moft probably, 
though new to himfelf and his quondam 
companions, a ftale joke to many perfons 
prefent, and pofftbly the wit of a jeft-book. 
As to wit, in general, it is a plaything fo 
very like an edged tool, that it is impoflile 
a boy fhould meddle with it without cutting 
his fingers. But, befides the danger, there 
is another reafon fufficient to deter a young 
man from attempting to be witty. I mean 
the difficulty of immediately diftinguifhing 
real from falfe wit. The firft may produce 
fome degree of applaufe: the latter, nothing 
better than a fneer. Every unfuccefsful at- 
tempt to be witty, ^ recoils, like an over- 
loaded gun; overturns the author, and ex- 
pofes him fprawling to the derifion of his 
companions. 
In what I have written concerning the ge- 
neral 
