his Chastisement, he would have sunk into Infamy, and become quite
odious and intolerable: But here the inimitable _Wit_ of Sir _John_
comes in to his Support, and gives a new _Rise_ and _Lustre_ to his
Character; For the sake of his _Wit_ you forgive his _Cowardice_; or
rather, are fond of his _Cowardice_ for the Occasions it gives to his
_Wit_. In short, the _Humour_ furnishes a Subject and Spur to the
_Wit_, and the _Wit_ again supports and embellishes the _Humour_.

At the _first_ Entrance of the _Knight_, your good Humour and Tendency
to _Mirth_ are irresistibly excited by his jolly Appearance and
Corpulency; you feel and acknowledge him, to be the fittest Subject
imaginable for yielding _Diversion_ and _Merriment_; but when you
see him immediately set up for _Enterprize_ and _Activity_, with his
evident _Weight_ and _Unweildiness_, your Attention is all call'd
forth, and you are eager to watch him to the End of his Adventures;
Your Imagination pointing out with a full Scope his future
Embarrassments. All the while as you accompany him forwards, he
_heightens_ your Relish for his future Disasters, by his happy Opinion
of his own Sufficiency, and the gay Vaunts which he makes of his
Talents and Accomplishments; so that at last when he falls into a
Scrape, your Expectation is exquisitely gratify'd, and you have the
full Pleasure of seeing all his trumpeted Honour laid in the Dust.
When in the midst of his Misfortunes, instead of being utterly
demolish'd and sunk, he rises again by the superior Force of his
_Wit_, and begins a _new_ Course with fresh Spirit and Alacrity;
This excites you the more to _renew_ the Chace, in full View of his
_second_ Defeat; out of which he recovers again, and triumphs with
new Pretensions and Boastings. After this he immediately starts upon
a _third_ Race, and so on; continually detected and caught, and
yet constantly extricating himself by his inimitable _Wit_ and