Thus accomplithed, a jefter may not only be diverting, according to the original institution of his place, but useful also and instructing in a very fuperlative degree. By profeffion, he is a manufacturer and dealer in apophthegms, proverbs, aphorifms, maxims, and bons mots of every kind: all which are not only highly calculated for wit and amusement, but (in the opinion of the wifeft men) the moft efficacious means of conveying knowledge. Seneca fays, that "even rude and uncultivated "minds are ftruck, as it were, with thefe fhort "but weighty fentences, which anticipate all reafoning, by flashing truths upon them at "once;" and he relates, that Agrippa, the minifter of Auguftus Cæfar, ufed to own himfelf much indebted to that of Salluft, concordiâ parvæ res crefcunt, difcordia maximæ dilabuntur: a pithy fentence indeed, and which the good people of old England would, at all times, do well to ponder. Plutarch drew up and digefted a collection of apophthegms for Trajan, and Erafmus did the fame for a German prince; in the dedication to whom, after obferving how finely fitted these close and pointed fentences are for instruction, he adds, that they are " fingularly accommodated to "the fituation and exigencies of a prince, who has not time to read Plato, Aristotle, and "other voluminous writers upon government, "laws, manners, &c." Now with fuch inftruments as thefe, managed judiciously and with address, a jester may produce furprifing effects: nay, Bayle has not fcrupled to fay, that "a fentence, taken "from Livy or Tacitus, is capable of faving "a nation, and perhaps has faved more than "one 4." It is very well known, that war, peace, and other important national events, have often originated in fecret from very minute and (as would be thought) inadequate caufes; while the reafons, publicly given out, have been merely oftenfible. But a jefter, fuch a one as I mean, is or may be often within the cabinet. He may therefore instruct his mafter, as I have faid; but he may do more: he may alfo in fome measure regulate and direct his paffions, and greatly influence his political conduct, while his apparent object fhall be only to divert him. There was a jester among the household of Charles I. who was brought before the council, and with much folemnity difcarded from court, for pointing his raillery at archbishop Laud; but many knowing ones have thought, that, if the king had difcarded Project for a Dictionary, the the archbishop instead of the jefter, his affairs might have ended better than they did. Dioclefian, a Roman emperor, made the difficulty of reigning well to confift chiefly in the difficulty of arriving at the real knowledge of affairs. "Four or five courtiers," faid he, "form themselves into a cabal, and unite in "their counfels to deceive the emperor. They fay what will please their master; who, being fhut up in his palace, is a stranger to the "truth, and forced to know only what they "think fit to tell him "." Now the jefter will be fure to prevent or diffipate all this darkness and obfcurity he will be a perpetual intelligencer to his master: he will daily and hourly laugh him into true ideas of persons and things, and lead him gradually to fee them as they are". Thus royalty will be guarded against many evils: it will not be misled by either flattery or abuse; but taught to lay the due ftrefs, and no more, upon whatever shall be faid for or against itself. These and innu Vopifcus in Aureliano. 6 This was what the famous Carvalho fo much dreaded from the lively and witty Count d'Obidos: Il craignoit, fays the hiftorian, que fes bons mots ne fiffent à la fin quelque imprej fon fur l'efprit du Monarque, & ne parvinssent peut-être à lui ouvrir les yeux. Memoires de Carvalho, Marquis de Pombal. Tom. II. p. 35. 3 merable merable other benefits will be obtained, and all in the way of mirth and pleasantry. Upon the whole then, agreeably to my idea of a jester, many might be glad to see this perfonage re-established at court, and a proper ftipend affigned to his office 7. If he produce the effects I have fpecified, well and good: and, let the worst happen that can, it will be only adding one more to those many places and penfions, which, being of no great use or ornament to the kingdom, must unavoidably create difaffection and complaint; unless we could fuppofe the Englifh of the fame humour with the fubjects of a duke of Savoy, who, being afked "how they could bear their heavy "taxations?" replied, We are not fo much offended with the duke for what he takes from us, as thankful to him for what he leaves us 3. 7 Yet a certain writer feems to think this in no wife neceffary: "The laft jefter we had at court," fays he, "was. "in the licentious reign of Charles II. Since that time our manners have been fo gradually refining, that our court "at prefent is full of patriots, who wish for nothing but "the honours and wealth of their country; and our ladies are all fo chafte, fo fpotlefs, fo good, fo devout, that "there is nothing for a jefter to make a jeft of." Yorick's Sentimental Journey. Lord Herbert's Life, p. 110. 1770, 4to. II. OF QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER WRITERS, ESPECIALLY THE ANCIENT GREEK AND LATIN. IN quotations, as in all other things, men have run into extremes. Some writers have quoted moft abundantly, in order (as should feem) to make an oftentation of learning; with one of whom La Mothe le Vayer, though himself a great quoter, appears to have been much fatigued: "God grant you," cries he, "to become lefs learned"-Dieu vous faffe la grace de devenir moins fcavant. Others have fcarcely quoted at all, as Locke and Hoadley, with fome of an inferior kind, who perhaps have hence affected to pafs for original writers, that needed no extraneous helps: and indeed, in books of mere reafoning, all quotation to many may feem impertinent. La Bruyere has animadverted upon the former extreme: he complains of books being crowded fo with quotations, as to be hardly any thing elfe; of citing Ovid and Tibullus at the bar, Horace and Lucretius in the pulpit : where, fays he, "Latin and fometimes Greek "are the languages chofen to entertain the women and churchwardens with "." And, 9 Charact. De la Chaire. doubtlefs, |