. 20-21) that
imagination (or wit) is the faculty by which "we conceive some certain
similitude in objects really unlike, and pleasantly confound them in
discourse: Which by its unexpected Fineness and allusion, surprizing
the Hearer, renders him less curious of the truth of what is said." In
short, wit is delightful, but, because it leads away from truth,
unprofitable and, it may be, even dangerous.

The identification of wit with fancy gave it a lowly role in Augustan
thinking; and also in literary prose, which was supposed to be the
language of reason (cf. Donald F. Bond, "'Distrust' of Imagination in
English Neo-Classicism," _PQ_, XIV, 54-69). What of its
position in poetry? According to Hobbes, poetry must exhibit both
judgment and fancy, but fancy should dominate; and the work of fancy
is to adorn discourse with tropes and figures, to please by
extravagance, to disguise meaning, and to create pleasant
illusions. One of Hobbes's followers announced that fancy must have
the upper hand because all poems please chiefly by novelty. While they
made wit the most essential element in poetry, they made it trivial
and empty, and thereby helped to bring poetry itself into contempt.

Partly to oppose this low opinion of poetry, the neo-Aristotelians
among the critics began to stress the view that fable, design, and
structure were the really essential elements in poetry, and that these
were the product of reason, or judgment. And because reason was the
means by which truth was discovered, poetry by virtue of its
rational framework became capable of revealing and communicating
truth--that is, of instructing. In this conception of poetry there was
little glory left for wit. It was relegated to be used for color and
adornment in serious poetry, or to furnish the substance of the
"little" poetry which could not boast of design or structure. Thus,
the _Essay on Wit_ invites the poet, (p. 15):

Have as much Wit as you will, or you can, in a Madrigal, in
little light Verses, in the Scene of a Comedy, which is
neither passionate or simple, in a Compliment, in a little
Story, in a Letter where you would be merry yourself to make
your Friends so.

Be witty in these playful varieties of poetry, because wit in a large
and serious work would be insufferable.

"These Sports of the Imagination, these Finesses, these Conceits,
these glittering Strokes, these Gaieties, these little cut Sentences,
these ingenious