III. BEsides the two already mention’d Advantages, which the Intellectual part of the Mind may derive from the practice of Occasional Reflections, I should not scruple to add a third, if there were not too just Cause of apprehending, that my Writings may discredit any thing that comes propos’d of that Nature, by no better a Pen, and that the manner of what I am about to deliver, may disparage the Matter. But since, from the Experience ev’n of purblind and dim-sighted Persons, good Perspectives may be, not improperly, nor unsuccessfully, recommended, though their Native and peculiar Debility of Sight keep them from being able to see as clear, and as far, through such Glasses, as other Men can do, if themselves can, by the use of them, do far more than they could without them. I will adventure to speak of an improvement I cannot boast of, lest by suppressing the mention of an Advantage, because I cannot make it, I should seem either Vain, or Envious, as well as Dull. I shall then take notice, that the Meleteticks we are considering, may, where it finds a capable and dispos’d Subject, much improve that nimble and acceptable Faculty of the Mind, whereby some Men have a readiness, and subtilty, in conceiving things, and a quickness, and neatness, in expressing them, all which the custom of speaking comprehends under the name of Wit, which pleasing, and (if well manag’d) useful, Quality, the exercise I am discoursing of, may three or four several ways promote.
For (first) the accustoming ones self to make Extemporal Reflections, and that upon all kind of Occasions, do’s by degrees bring the Mind to a readiness of Conception, which keeps a Man from being easily surpris’d by the Subject he has occasion to consider, and enables him oftentimes to surprise his Hearers; and that such a kind of surprise is one of the most endearing Circumstances of the productions of Wit, he must not have much consider’d the Nature of them, that ignores.
Next, the same Exercise inures a Man to draw his Conceptions from the very Nature of the thing he speaks of, which, among those that can judge of Wit, is held a far greater sign of it, than the saying things more specious, and elaborate, that appear to be Antienter than the Occasion, as is usual in Epigrams, and other solemn premeditated pieces of Wit, where oftentimes the Thoughts were not made for the Themes, but before them: Whereas, the suddenness of a good Occasional Reflection, and its congruity to that which gave it Rise, persuades the Hearers, that the Speaker’s Wit is of its own growth, and is rather suggested by the Occasion, than barely applied to it.
A third way, whereby our Meleteticks may conduce to Wit, is, by bringing those that use to write their Thoughts, to what may be call’d a certain Suppleness of Style; for when a Man treats of familiar, or of solemn Subjects, he is so much assisted by the received phrases and manners of speaking, that are wont to be imploi’d about them, that being seldome at a loss for convenient expressions, his Wit is seldome distress’d how to furnish him with words fit for his turn. But the Subjects that invite Occasional Reflections, are so various, and uncommon, and oftentimes so odd, that, to accommodate ones Discourse to them, the vulgar and receiv’d forms of Speech will afford him but little assistance, and to come off any thing well, he must exercise his Invention, and put it upon coining various and new Expressions, to sute that variety of unfamiliar Subjects, and of Occasions, that the Objects of his Meditation will engage him to write of: And by this difficult exercise of his Inventive faculty, he may by degrees so improve it, and, after a while, attain to so pliant a Style, that scarce any Thought will puzzle him to fit words to it, and he will be able to cut out Expressions, and make them sit close to such Subjects, as a Person unaccustom’d to such kind of Composures, would find it very difficult to write of, with any thing of propriety.
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