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It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely inconsistent.
When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination.
The mind of man being naturally limited, it is impossible all his
faculties can operate at once; and the more any one predominates, the
less room is there for the others to exert their vigour. For this reason
a greater degree of simplicity is required in all compositions, where
men and actions and passions are painted, than in such as consist of
reflections and observations. And as the former species of writing is
the more engaging and beautiful, one may safely, upon this account, give
the preference to the extreme of simplicity above that of refinement.
We may also observe, that those compositions which we read the oftenest,
and which every man of taste has got by heart, have the recommendation
of simplicity, and have nothing surprising in the thought when divested
of that elegance of expression and harmony of numbers with which it is
cloathed. If the merit of the composition lies in a point of wit, it may
strike at first; but the mind anticipates the thought in the second
perusal, and is no longer affected by it. When I read an epigram of
Martial, the first line recalls the whole; and I have no pleasure in
repeating to myself what I know already.
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