Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)

The Adventures of David Simple

London

Printed for A. Millar

1744, 1753

"A Metaphor from Mechanism, I think, will very plainly illustrate my Thoughts on this Subject [of wit and judgment]: For let a Machine, of any kind, be joined together by an ingenious Artist, and I dare say, he will be best able to take it apart again: a Bungler, or an ignorant Person, perhaps, may pull it asunder, or break it to pieces; but to separate it nicely, and know how to divide it in the right Places, will certainly be the best performed, by the Man who had Skill enough to set it together."

"If Youth and Liveliness sometimes led me into any Action, which they, in their riper Judgments, (for the youngest of them was five Years older than I was) term'd Indiscretions, they immediatelythank'd God, tho' they had no Wit, they had common Sense, and knew how to conduct themselves in Life, which they thought much more valuable; but these Wits had never any Judgment. This is a Mistake which prevails generally in the World, and, I believe, arises from the strong Desire most Men have to be thought witty; but when they find it's impossible, they would willingly be thought to have a Contempt for it; and perhaps they sometimes have the Art of flattering themselves to such a Degree, as really to believe they do despise it: For Men often impose so much on their own Understandings, as to triumph in those very Things they would be ashamed of, if their Self-Love would but permit them for a Moment, to see things clearly as they are: They go beyond the Jack-daw in the Fable, who never went farther than to strut about in the Peacock's Feathers, with a design of imposing on others. For they endeavour so long to blind other Men's Eyes, that at last they quite darken their own; and altho' in their Nature they are certainly Jays, yet they find a Method of persuading themselves that they are Peacocks. But notwithstanding all the Industry People may make use of to blind themselves,if Wit consists, as Mr. Locke says, in the Assemblage of Ideas, and Judgment in the separating them; I really believe the Person who can join them with the most Propriety, will separate them with the greatest Nicety. A Metaphor from Mechanism, I think, will very plainly illustrate my Thoughts on this Subject: For let a Machine, of any kind, be joined together by an ingenious Artist, and I dare say, he will be best able to take it apart again: a Bungler, or an ignorant Person, perhaps, may pull it asunder, or break it to pieces; but to separate it nicely, and know how to divide it in the right Places, will certainly be the best performed, by the Man who had Skill enough to set it together. But with strong Passions, and lively Imaginations, People may sometimes be led into Errors, altho' their Judgments are ever so good; and when People, who are esteemed by the World to have Wit, are guilty of any Failing, all the Envious, (and I am afraid they are too great a part of the human Species) set up a general Outcry against them."
(pp. 194-6)

Machine

Searching in HDIS (Prose)

At least 15 entries in ESTC (1740, 1744, 1753, 1758, 1761, 1772, 1775, 1782, 1788, 1792). [Note, Volume the Last published in 1753.]

The Adventures of David Simple: Containing an Account of his Travels through the Cities of London and Westminster, in the Search of a Real Friend. By a Lady, 2 vols. (London: A. Millar, 1744) <Link to ECCO>

Wit and Judgment
Lockean Philosophy

11/16/2004

07/18/2011