y gives him any Superiority to the Man he would fall upon, he has
no Mercy in making the Onset. He can be pleased to see his best Friend
out of Countenance, while the Laugh is loud in his own Applause. His
Raillery always puts the Company into little Divisions and separate
Interests, while that of _Callisthenes_ cements it, and makes every Man
not only better pleased with himself, but also with all the rest in the
Conversation.

To rally well, it is absolutely necessary that Kindness must run thro'
all you say, and you must ever preserve the Character of a Friend to
support your Pretensions to be free with a Man. _Acetus_ ought to be
banished human Society, because he raises his Mirth upon giving Pain to
the Person upon whom he is pleasant. Nothing but the Malevolence, which
is too general towards those who excell, could make his Company
tolerated; but they with whom he converses, are sure to see some Man
sacrificed where-ever he is admitted, and all the Credit he has for Wit
is owing to the Gratification it gives to other Men's Ill-nature.

_Minutius_ has a Wit that conciliates a Man's Love at the same time that
it is exerted against his Faults. He has an Art of keeping the Person he
rallies in Countenance, by insinuating that he himself is guilty of the
same Imperfection. This he does with so much Address, that he seems
rather to bewail himself, than fall upon his Friend.

It is really monstrous to see how unaccountably it prevails among Men,
to take the Liberty of displeasing each other. One would think sometimes
that the Contention is, who shall be most disagreeable, Allusions to
past Follies, Hints which revive what a Man has a Mind to forget for
ever, and deserves that all the rest of the World should, are commonly
brought forth even in Company of Men of Distinction. They do not thrust
with the Skill of Fencers, but cut up with the Barbarity of Butchers. It
is, methinks, below the Character of Men of Humanity and Good-manners,
to be capable of Mirth while there is any one of the Company in Pain and
Disorder. They who have the true Taste of Conversation, enjoy themselves
in a Communication of each other's Excellencies, and not in a Triumph
over their Imperfections. _Fortius_ would have been reckoned a Wit, if
there had never been a Fool in the World: He wants not Foils to be a
Beauty, but has that natural Pleasure in observing Perfection in others,
that his own Faults are overlooked out of Gratitude by all his
Ac