WIT. THE rays of wit gild wheresoe'er they strike, They charm the lively, but the grave offend, Like the resistless beams of blazing light, They cheer the strong, and pain the weakly sight. Benjamin Stillingfleet. WIT. NATURE has shown, by making it so rare, That wit's a jewel which we need not wear : Young, Satires, ii. A WIT is a very terror along with it afraid of a live wit : WIT. unpopular denomination, as it carries and people in general are as much in company as a woman is of a gun, which she thinks may go off of itself and do her a mischief. Chesterfield, Letter to his Son, Oct. 12, 1748. WIT AND WISDOM. AHITOPHEL was as great an oracle, and gave as good counsel to Absalom, as ever he had given to David; but not having the good luck to be believed, and thereupon losing his former repute, he thought it high time to hang himself. And, on the other side, there have been some, who for several years have been fools with tolerable good reputation, and never discovered themselves to be so, till at length they attempted to be knaves also, but wanted art and dexterity. And as the repute of wisdom, so that of wit also, is very casual. Sometimes a lucky saying, or a pertinent reply, has procured an esteem of wit, to persons otherwise very shallow, and no ways accustomed to utter such things by any standing ability of mind; so that if such an one should have the ill hap at any time to strike a man dead with a smart saying, it ought, in all reason and conscience, to be judged but a chance-medley: the poor man (God knows) being no way guilty of any design of wit. Nay, even where there is a real stock of wit, yet the wittiest sayings and sentences will be found in a great measure the issues of mere chance, and nothing else but so many lucky hits of a roving fancy. ... In short, though wit and learning are certain and habitual perfections of the mind, yet the declaration of them, which alone brings the repute, is subject to a thousand hazards: so that every wit runs something the same risk with the astrologer, who, if his predictions come to pass, is cried up to the stars from whence he pretends to draw them; but if not, the astrologer himself grows more out of date than his almanack. South, Sermons, viii. WOMAN. THE man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined; one remove further from the earth. The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam: not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be equal with. him; under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Matthew Henry, Commentary on Genesis. WOMAN. THE love of a woman is inseparable from some esteem of her; and as she is naturally the object of affection, the woman who has your esteem has also some degree of your love. A man that dotes on a woman for her beauty, will whisper his friend, 'That creature has a great deal of wit when you are well acquainted with her,' and if you examine the bottom of your esteem for a woman, you will find you have a greater opinion of her beauty than anybody else. WOMAN. Steele, Tatler, No. 206. We are not precise enough in our distinctions when we attribute all the power of a woman to her pretty face. It may, indeed, begin there, but she shows her power and the great characteristic difference between her and man by a whole region of influences. It is the mild and graceful movements of the body, the sweet voice, the gentle undemonstrativeness, the yielding complaisance, the mild unobtrusiveness of intellect, that constitute the charm which we erroneously impute to the attractions of the face. WOMAN. Richter. O, IF the loving, closed heart of a good woman should open before a man, how much controlled tenderness, how many veiled sacrifices and dumb virtues would he see reposing therein? Richter, Hesperus. WOMAN. If thou wouldst truly judge of a woman, make not the complaisant allowances which fops have introduced, but suppose her masculine; and then weigh her real excellencies and deficiencies; for in good earnest we all befool our judgments with thinking too much of her fantastical invisibilities. WOMAN. Fuller, Introduction to Prudence. 'Tis a powerful sex: they were too strong for the first, the strongest, and the wisest man that was: they must needs be strong, when one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen. WOMAN. Howell, Familiar Letters. WHAT will not woman, gentle woman, dare, Southey, Madoc, pt. ii. 2. WOMEN. A THOUSAND acts in every age will prove WOMEN. DOMESTIC charge doth best that sex befit, WOMEN. Sir Thomas Overbury. Most females will forgive a liberty rather than a slight; and if any woman were to hang a man for stealing her picture, although it were set in gold, it would be a new case in law; but if he carried off the setting, and left the portrait, I would not answer for his safety. Colton, Lacon. WOMEN. I PROFESS not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Washington Irving, Sketch Book. BB WOMEN. BESHREW my heart, but it is wondrous strange ; Sure there is something more than witchcraft in them, Rowe, Jane Shore, act iv. s. WOMEN. As for the women, though we scorn and flout 'em, GALLANTRY TO WOMEN. THAT which we call gallantry to women seems to be the heroic virtue of private persons; and there never breathed one man, who did not in that part of his days wherein he was recommending himself to his mistress, do something beyond his ordinary course of life. As this has a very great effect even upon the most slow or common men, so upon such as it finds qualified with virtue and merit, it shines out in proportionable degrees of excellence. It gives new grace to the most eminent accomplishments; and he, who of himself has either wit, wisdom, or valour, exerts each of these noble endowments, when he becomes a lover, with a certain beauty of action above what was ever observed in him before; and all who are without any one of these qualities, are to be looked upon as the rabble of mankind. Steele, Tatler, No. 94. GALLANTRY TO WOMEN. COURTESY had always been the proper attitude of knighthood; protection of the weak its legitimate duty; but these were heightened to a pitch of enthusiasm when woman became their object. |