his undertaking, that the scheme of my thoughts may not be broken
and interrupted; and I dare promise myself, if my readers will give me a
week's attention, that this great city will be very much changed for the
better by next Saturday night. I shall endeavour to make what I say
intelligible to ordinary capacities; but if my readers meet with any
paper that in some parts of it may be a little out of their reach, I
would not have them discouraged, for they may assure themselves the next
shall be much clearer.

As the great and only end of these my speculations is to banish vice and
ignorance out of the territories of Great Britain, I shall endeavour, as
much as possible, to establish among us a taste of polite writing. It is
with this view that I have endeavoured to set my readers right in several
points relating to operas and tragedies, and shall, from time to time,
impart my notions of comedy, as I think they may tend to its refinement
and perfection. I find by my bookseller, that these papers of criticism,
with that upon humour, have met with a more kind reception than indeed I
could have hoped for from such subjects; for which reason I shall enter
upon my present undertaking with greater cheerfulness.

In this, and one or two following papers, I shall trace out the history
of false wit, and distinguish the several kinds of it as they have
prevailed in different ages of the world. This I think the more
necessary at present, because I observed there were attempts on foot last
winter to revive some of those antiquated modes of wit that have been
long exploded out of the commonwealth of letters. There were several
satires and panegyrics handed about in an acrostic, by which means some
of the most arrant undisputed blockheads about the town began to
entertain ambitious thoughts, and to set up for polite authors. I shall
therefore describe at length those many arts of false wit, in which a
writer does not show himself a man of a beautiful genius, but of great
industry.

The first species of false wit which I have met with is very venerable
for its antiquity, and has produced several pieces which have lived very
near as long as the "Iliad" itself: I mean, those short poems printed
among the minor Greek poets, which resemble the figure of an egg, a pair
of wings, an axe, a shepherd's pipe, and an altar.

As for the first, it is a little oval poem, and may not improperly be
called a scholar's egg. I would endeavour