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Another part of the Province in which Wit is properly exercis’d, are ingenious Writings, intended to please and improve the People; and this is more various and extensive than Comick Poetry, tho of the same Kind; for it takes in not only the Subjects of Prudence and Decency, regular Behaviour and vertuous Actions, but likewise the justness of Human Sentiments and Opinions in Points of Controversy; of the last, the Dialogue of Dr. Eachard against Mr. Hobbes is a famous Example, where, by great Strength and Solidity of Reason, mixt with agreeable Wit and Raillery, he entertains and informs the Reader, and at once exposes and confutes the conceited Philosopher. An Instance of the first is, the celebrated History of Don Quixote, compil’d by the Spanish Wit Michael de Cervantes ; a Book so well imagin’d, and writ with so much Spirit and fine Raillery, that it effectually procur’d the End of the admirable Author; for by turning into Mirth and Ridicule the reigning Folly of Romantick Chivalry, and freeing the Minds of the People from that fashionable Delusion, he broke the Force of as strong an Enchantment, and destroy’d as great a Monster as was ever pretended to be vanquish’d by their imaginary Heroes. And many more Books on other moral Subjects have been compos’d with much Wit and Vivacity in our own and foreign Countries, to expose Vice and Folly, and promote Decency and Sobriety of Manners. But the Productions of this Nature, which have of late appear’d in this Nation, whether we regard the just and generous Sentiments, the fertile Invention, the Variety of Subjects, the surprizing Turns of Wit and facetious Imagination, the genteel Satire, the Purity and Propriety of the Words, and the Beauty and Dignity of the Diction, have surpass’d all the Productions of this kind, that have been publish’d in any Age or Country. The Reader no doubt is before-hand with me, and concludes, that I mean the Tatler and Spectator, which for the greatest Part, have all the Perfection of Writing, and all the Advantages of Wit and Humour, that are requir’d to entertain and instruct the People: And it must chiefly be owing to the great Depravity of Manners in these loose and degenerate Times, that such worthy Performances have produc’d no better Effects.

But this excellent and amiable Qualification of the Mind is too apt to be abus’d and perverted to ill purposes. Instead of being ingag’d on the Side of Vertue, and us’d to promote just Notions and Regularity of Life, it is frequently employ’d to expose the most Sacred Things, to turn Gravity and reserv’d Behaviour into Ridicule, to keep in Countenance Vice and Irreligion, and with a petulant and unrestrain’d Liberty, to deride the Principles and Practices of the wisest and best of Men. The Conversation of ingenious Libertines generally turns upon Reveal’d Religion and the venerable Teachers of it; or on those of the Laity, who seem most sincere in the Belief of Christianity, and express the greatest Conformity in their Actions to the Precepts of it. Nothing gives so high a Seasoning to their Raillery, and more improves the Taste of their Jests, than some sharp and pointed Ingredients, that wound Religion and the Professors of it; whereof some are made the Entertainment of the Company by these facetious Scoffers, and expos’d as Persons fetter’d with Prepossessions, and biass’d by Notions of Vertue, deriv’d from Education and the early Instructions of canting Parents. Others are represented as indebted for their Piety to the Prevalency of the Spleen, and an immoderate mixture of Melancholy in their Complexion, which, say they, give to the Mind a superstitious Turn, and fill the Head with religious Chimeras, frightful Phantomes of Guilt, and idle Fears of imaginary Punishments; while others are ridicul’d as Men of a cold and phlegmatick Complexion, without Spirit and native Fire; who derive, say they, their Vertue, not from Choice or Restraint of Appetite, but from their deadness and indisposition to Pleasure; not from the Power of their Reason, but the Weakness of their Passions. It would be endless to enumerate the various Ways which the atheistical Wit and merry Libertine employ, to take off all Veneration of Religion, and expose its Adherents to publick Derision. This is certainly the greatest Abuse of Wit imaginable. In all the Errors and monstrous Productions of Nature, can any appear more deform’d than a Man of Parts, who employs his admirable Qualities in bringing Piety into Contempt, putting Vertue to the Blush, and making Sobriety of Manners the common Subject of his Mirth; while with Zeal and Industry, he propagates the malignant Contagion of Vice and Irreligion, poisons his Friends and Admirers, and promotes the Destruction of his native Country? And if these foolish Wits and ingenious Madmen could reflect, they would soon be convinc’d, that while they are engag’d against Religion they hurt themselves; and that Wit and Humour thus misapply’d, will prove but a wretched Compensation for their want of Vertue.