who have the best Reputation for their Wit and Judgment.

* There's somewhat that borders upon _Madness_ in every exalted _Wit_.

* One of the most remarkable Fools that resort to _Will_'s, is the
_Fop-Poet_, who is one that has always more Wit in his Pockets than any
where else, yet seldom or never any of his own there. _Æsop_'s Daw was a
Type of him, for he makes himself fine with the Plunder of all Parties;
He is a smuggler of Wit, and steals _French_ Fancies, without paying the
customary Duties; Verse is his _Manufacture_; for it is more the Labour
of his _Fingers_, than his _Brain_: He spends much time in _writing_,
but ten times more in _reading_ what he has written: He asks your
Opinion, yet for fear you should not jump with him, tells you his own
first: He desires no Favour, yet is disappointed if he is not Flatter'd,
and is always offended at the Truth. He is a _Poetical Haberdasher of
small Wares_, and deals very much in _Novels_, _Madrigals_, _Funeral_
and _Love Odes_, _Panegyricks_, _Elegies_, and other Toys of
_Parnassus_, which he has a Shop so well furnish'd with, that he can fit
you with all sorts in the twinkling of an Eye. He talks much of
_Wycherley_, _Garth_, and _Congreve_, and protests, he can't help having
some Respect for them, because they have so much for him and his
Writings, otherwise he could make it appear that they understand little
of Poetry in comparison of himself, but he forbears 'em meerly out of
Gratitude and Compassion. He is the _Oracle_ of those that want _Wit_,
and the _Plague_ of those that have it; for he haunts their Lodgings,
and is more terrible to them than their Duns.

* _Brutus_ for want of _Wit_, sets up for _Criticism_; yet has so much
ambition to be thought a _Wit_, that he lets his Spleen prevail against
Nature, and turns Poet. In this Capacity he is as just to the World as