6).
In general it was recognized that there were two main kinds of wit.
Both fancy and judgment, said Hobbes (_Human Nature_, X, sect. 4), are
usually understood in the term _wit_; and wit seems to be "a tenuity
and agility of spirits," opposed to the sluggishness of spirits
assumed to be characteristic of dull people. Sometimes wit was used in
this sense to translate the words _ingenium_ or _l'esprit_. But
Hobbes's disciple Walter Charleton objected to making it the
equivalent of _ingenium_, which, he said, rather signified a man's
natural inclination--that is, genius. Instead, he described wit as
either the faculty of understanding, or an act or effect of that
faculty; and understanding is made up of both judgment and
Imagination. The Ample or Happy Wit exhibits a fine blend of the two
(_Brief Discourse concerning the Different Wits of Men_, 1669, pp. 10,
17-19). In this sense wit combines quickness and solidity of mind.
In the other, and more restricted sense, wit was made identical with
fancy (or imagination) and distinguished sharply from reason or
judgment. So Hobbes, recording a popular meaning of wit, remarked
(_Leviathan_. I, viii) that people who discover rarely observed
similitudes in objects that otherwise are much unlike, are said to
have a good wit.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25