Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man
whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your
definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the
common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr.
Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the
shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with
classical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,
..._numeris_que fertur
LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's.
fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also
observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an
evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit
(whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former
edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have
given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious
friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit
than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not
justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly
merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular
instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to
elude the hand that attempts to grasp it.
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