I am, &c
25 May, 1744
J---- W----
[not identified]
If the "Gentlemen of Abilities" of the day found some of Morris's
definitions obscure, modern readers will find them more precise than
those of most of his predecessors. All who had gone before--Cowley,
Barrow, Dryden, Locke, Addison, and Congreve (he does not mention
Hobbes)--Morris felt had bungled the job. And although he apologizes
for attempting what the great writers of the past had failed to do, he
has no hesitation in setting forth exactly what he believes to be the
proper distinctions in the meanings of such terms as wit, humour,
judgment, invention, raillery, and ridicule. The mathematician and
statistician in Morris made him strive for precise accuracy. It was
all very clear to him, and by the use of numerous anecdotes and
examples he hoped to make the distinctions obvious to the general
reader.
The _Essay_ shows what a man of some evident taste and perspicacity,
with an analytical mind, can do in defining the subtle semantic
distinctions in literary terms. Trying to fix immutably what is
certain always to be shifting, Morris is noteworthy not only because
of the nature of his attempt, but because he is relatively so
successful.
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