century readers.  Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce and industry, indeed almost every act of his administration, is lauded to the skies.  The Church of England, in which “the Exercise of Reason in the solemn Worship of God, is the sacred Right, and indispensible Duty, of Man,” receives its share of eulogy.  In every connection the Tories are violently attacked.

The Dedication ends in a peroration of praise for Walpole’s public achievements which “shall adorn the History of Britain,” and for his “Private Virtues and all the softer Features” of his mind.  His home of retirement is referred to in the lines of Milton: 

  “Great Palace now of Light! 
  Hither, as to their Fountain, other Stars
  Repairing, in their golden Urns, draw Light;
  And here [sic] the Morning Planet gilds her Horns.”

      [P.L. 7. 363-66]

“Thus splendid, and superior, your Lordship now flourishes in honourable Ease, exerting universal Benevolence....”  But in dedications, as in lapidary inscriptions, as Dr. Johnson might have agreed, a writer need not be upon oath.

At the end of the Essay Morris reprinted two essays from The Spectator, Nos. 35 and 62, and William Congreve’s “An Essay concerning Humour in Comedy.  To Mr. Dennis” (Congreve’s Works, ed.  Summers, III, 161-68).  Since these are readily available, they have not been included in this edition.

The present facsimile is made from a copy owned by Louis I. Bredvold, with his kind permission.

James L. Clifford

Columbia University

* * * * *

[Transcriber’s Note:  The ARS edition included an errata slip, reproduced here.  Where text was changed or deleted, the original is given in brackets.  Corrections to the Essay itself are listed after the ARS errata.]

Please paste the following in your copy of Corbyn Morris’s Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit....

(ARS, Series One, No. 4)

ERRATA

INTRODUCTION: 

page 5, line 1—­“word apparently omitted” should be inclosed in brackets.

page 5, line 6—­“not identified” should be inclosed in brackets.

page 6, line 5—­the first “of” should be omitted.
    ["modern readers need not regret too much of the omission
      of the fulsome 32 page dedication”]

page 6, line 12, should read
  “Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while necessarily
  curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce”.
    ["Walpole is praised for not curbing the theatre; his aid to
      commerce”]

page 6, line 25—­“sic” should be inclosed in brackets, as also “P.L. 7. 363-66” in the next line.

[ ESSAY ON WIT: