DISCOURSE III. On Wit and Ridicule: their Lawfulness, and the Uses and Abuses of them. LET NOT EPHES. V. 3, 4. FOOLISH TALKING, NOR JESTING, WHICH ARE NOT CONVENIENT, BE ONCE NAMED AMONGST YOU, AS BECOMETH SAINTS. THE HE City of Ephesus, the capital of Proconsular Asia, was noted in its gentile state, for the idolatry and skill in magic, for the luxury and lasciviousness of its inhabitants. The Apostle Paul, on his way from Corinth to the Passover at Jerusalem, called at this famous city, and preached to the Jews in their Synagogue, and left them with a promise to return to them again; which he did the year following; when he preached with such success, that he converted a considerable portion of the gentiles from their idolatry, who, in abhorrence of the wicked arts, which they had formerly practised, brought together their books upon these subjects, of very considerable value, and burnt them. The Apostle continued at Ephesus nearly three years; and afterwards, when a prisoner at Rome, he addressed this Epistle to his converts at Ephesus, in which he gives them much salutary advice, both for their faith and practice. At the beginning of the chapter I have just quoted, he exhorts them: "Be ye followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named amongst you, as becometh saints: neither filthiness, nor foolish-talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient; but rather giving of thanks. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of the light;-proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (v. 1—11.) - By the words, foolish-talking and jesting, many well-meaning, but, as we conceive, mistaken Christians have imagined, that all jesting, or wit, and facetiousness, are prohibited. One of the writers against the Stage, whose work I have had occasion to mention in my former Discourses, says, that St. Paul, by these words, "intended to prohibit the plays, that were then in use;" and that the word Kopos, used in more places than one, and translated revelling, points at the same thing." He adds, Whether these conjectures are just or not, it is very certain that these and many other passages, forbid the abuses of the Stage; and if these abuses be inseparable from it, as there is reason to believe, there needed no other prohibition of them to every Christian."* In two former discourses, I have endea voured to point out the proper line between the abuses and the uses of the Stage; and purposed in the next place, to shew the most probable means, of keeping them separate. But the subject of jesting, or wit and ridicule, as constituting a very principal part of one of the species of composition of the Stage, namely, Comedy, seems here to present itself, and to demand our attention. In this discourse, therefore, I shall consider, first, what jesting, or wit, is: secondly, how far it be lawful to use it: thirdly, what are the uses of it: fourthly, what are the abuses of it: and, lastly, I will make some general reflections on the whole. 1. And, here, again, as I have done before, let me express a hope, that no one will think * Witherspoon, p. 46, See also R. Hill's warning, p. 5. 8. and 31. the subject beneath the sacred dignity of this place; that which is of such extensive, important, and often pernicious consequences, but which, I think, might be rendered subservient to the cause of goodness alone, is not an object to be passed over in silent contempt. The excellent and judicious BARROW did not disdain to make WIT the subject of a whole discourse, which was delivered, probably, in this very place. "It may be demanded," says this Preacher, "what the thing we mean is. To which question I might reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, 'Tis that which we all see and know: any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed, a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof,-than to define the figure of the fleeting air."* The Author of the Essay on the human ·Understanding, in his Chapter " On Discerning and other operations of the Mind," considers Wit as lying most in the assemblage of ideas, * See Dr. Isaac Barrow's Second Sermon against evil speaking. 1 and putting those together with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any resemblance, or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures, and agreeable visions in the fancy; Judgment, on the contrary (says he) lies quite on the other side, in separating carefully one from another, ideas, wherein can be found the least difference, thereby to avoid being misled by similitude, and by affinity to take one thing for another. This is a way of proceeding quite contrary to metaphor and allusion, wherein, for the most part, lies that entertainment and pleasantry of wit, which strikes so lively on the fancy, and therefore is so acceptable to all people, because its beauty appears at first sight, and there is required no labour of thought to examine what truth or reason there is in it. The mind, without looking any farther, rests satisfied with the agreeableness of the picture, and the gaiety of the fancy: and it is a kind of affront to go about to examine it by the severe rules of truth and good reason; whereby it appears, that it consists in something that is not perfectly conformable to them."* This may serve to give some general idea of wit as a principle, and used as the ornament or seasoning of conversation. When it is used for * Locke's Works, folio, p. 60. |