a joke. - »Dear madam,«
replied he, »I pardon you with all my heart; for I protest I should not have
thought it a joke had you not told me.« - »Perhaps not, Sir,« cried my wife,
winking at us, »and yet I dare say you can tell us how many jokes go to an
ounce.« - »I fancy, madam,« returned Burchell, »you have been reading a jest
book this morning, that ounce of jokes is so very good a conceit; and yet,
madam, I had rather see half an ounce of understanding.« - »I believe you
might,« cried my wife, still smiling at us, though the laugh was against her;
»and yet I have seen some men pretend to understanding that have very little.« -
»And no doubt,« replied her antagonist, »you have known ladies set up for wit
that had none.« - I quickly began to find that my wife was likely to gain but
little at this business; so I resolved to treat him in a stile of more severity
myself. »Both wit and understanding,« cried I, »are trifles, without integrity:
it is that which gives value to every character. The ignorant peasant, without
fault, is greater than the philosopher with many; for what is genius or courage
without an heart? An honest man is the noblest work of God.«
    »I always held that hackney'd maxim of Pope,« returned Mr. Burchell, »as
very unworthy a man of genius, and a base desertion of his own superiority. As
the reputation of books is raised not by their freedom from defect, but the
greatness of their beauties; so should that of men be prized not for their
exemption from fault, but the size of those virtues they are possessed of. The
scholar may want prudence, the statesman may have pride, and the champion
ferocity; but shall we prefer to these the low mechanic, who laboriously plods
on through life, without censure or applause? We might as well prefer the tame
correct paintings of the Flemish school to the erroneous, but sublime animations
of the Roman pencil.«
    »Sir,« replied I, »your present observation is just, when there are shining
virtues and minute defects; but when it appears that great vices are opposed in
the same mind to as extraordinary virtues, such a character deserves contempt.«
    »Perhaps,« cried he, »there may be some such monsters as you describe, of
great