The Present State of Wit (1711)

The Present State of Wit (1711) - In a Letter to a Friend in the Country

Abel Boyer, a Huguenot who settled in London in 1689, devoted himself to language, history, and literature. As a linguist, he tutored Allen Bathurst and the Duke of Gloucester in French, prepared a textbook for English students of French, compiled a French and English dictionary, and endeavored to promote a better understanding between France and England by translating works of each nation into the language of the other. As a historian, he recorded the principal events of English national life from 1688 to 1729. As a literary figure, he wrote a play that was approved by Dryden and published two collections of characters. Coming in on the great flood of character books which reached its crest in the seventeenth century, Boyer's collections were part of the final surge before the character was taken over by Steele and handed on to the novelists. The first was Characters of the Virtues and Vices of the Age; or, Moral reflections, maxima, and thoughts upon men and manners. Translated from the most refined French wits and extracted from the most celebrated English writers. Digested alphabetically under proper titles (1695). The second, resembling the first in design but considerably enlarged, was published in 1702 under the title The English Theophrastus: Or The Manners of the Age. Being the Modern Characters Of The Court, the Town, and the City. No author is given on the title page, but the work is usually ascribed to Boyer because his name appears beneath the dedication. That Boyer's purpose in preparing The English Theophrastus was moral is evident in the preface, where he describes the subject of his book as the "Grand-Lesson, deliver'd by the Delphian Oracle, Know thy Self: Which certainly is the most important of a Man's Life." Distempers of the mind, he continues, like those of the body, are half cured when well known. Although philosophers of all ages have agreed in their aim to expose human imperfections in order to rectify them, their methods have differed. Those moralists who have inveighed magisterially against man's vices generally have been "abandon'd to the ill-bred Teachers of Musty Morals in Schools, or to the sowr Pulpit-Orators." Those who, by "nipping Strokes of a Side-wind Satyr, have endeavour'd to tickle Men out of their Follies," have been welcomed and caressed by the very people who were most abused. Since self-love waves the application, satire, unless bluntly direct, can fail as completely as reprehension. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 14800
Author: Bond, Donald F. (Donald Frederic)
Release Date: Jan 27, 2005
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: The Augustan Reprint Society
Publication Date: 1947
Publisher Country: Los Angeles