The Present State of Wit (1711) Part 5

* A _Mind_ that has no Ballance in it self, turns insolent, or abject, out of measure, with the various Change of Fortune.

* Our _Memories_ are frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover afterwards. In vain we hunt for the stragling _Idea_, and rummage all the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has left no Track or Foot-steps behind it: The swift Off-spring of the Mind is gone; 'tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the moment it was conceiv'd: The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts, is to fasten them in Words, and chain them in Writing.

* A Man is never so great a _Dunce_ by _Nature_, but _Love_, _Malice_, or _Necessity_, will supply him with some _Wit_.

* There is a _Defect_ which is almost unavoidable in great _Inventors_; it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds, to do wonderful Things in the beginning; but shortly after, to be over-born by the Mult.i.tude and Weight of their own Thoughts; then to yield and cool by little and little, and at last grow weary, and even to loath that, upon which they were at first the most eager. This is the wonted Const.i.tution of _great Wits_; such tender things are those exalted Actions of the Mind; and so hard it is for those Imaginations, that can run swift and mighty Races, to be able to travel a long and constant Journey. The Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable, that we have certianly lost very many Inventions, after they have been in part fas.h.i.+on'd, by the meer _Languis.h.i.+ng_ and _Negligence_ of their _Authors_.