_it is_, but is quite vague and perplex'd in his Description; and at
last, instead of collecting his scatter'd Rays into a _Focus_, and
exhibiting succinctly the clear Essence and Power of WIT, he drops the
whole with a trite Compliment.

The learned Dr. _Barrow_, in his _Sermon against foolish Talking and
Jesting_, gives the following profuse Description of WIT.

But first it may be demanded, What the Thing we speak of is? Or
what the Facetiousness (or _Wit_ as he calls it before) doth
import? To which Questions I might reply, as _Democritus_ did to
him that asked the Definition of a Man, _'Tis that we all see and
know._ Any one better apprehends what it is by Acquaintance,
than I can inform him by Description. It is indeed a Thing so
versatile and multiform, appearing in so many Shapes, so many
Postures, so many Garbs, so variously apprehended by several
Eyes and Judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a
clear and certain Notion thereof, than to make a Portrait of
_Proteus_, or to define the Figure of the fleeting Air. Sometimes
it lieth in pat Allusion to a known Story, or in seasonable
Application of a trivial Saying, or in forging an apposite Tale:
Sometimes it playeth in Words and Phrases, taking Advantage from
the Ambiguity of their Sense, or the Affinity of their Sound:
Sometimes it is wrapp'd in a Dress of humorous Expression:
Sometimes it lurketh under an odd Similitude: Sometimes it
is lodged in a sly Question, in a smart Answer, in a quirkish
Reason, in a shrewd Intimation, in cunningly diverting, or
cleverly retorting an Objection: Sometimes it is couched in a
bold Scheme of Speech, in a tart Irony, in a lusty Hyperbole,
in a startling Metaphor, in a plausible Reconciling of