True wit is nature to advantage dressed, — What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. American Quarterly Review - Page 539edited by - 1835Full view - About this book
| Thomas Humphry Ward - English poetry - 1880 - 636 pages
...literature began. A good example of this art is supplied by the couplet which has just been quoted from ; ' True wit is nature to advantage dressed ; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.' 62 THE ENGLISH POETS. which is Pope's compressed form of the following prose of Boileau... | |
| Thomas Humphry Ward - English poetry - 1880 - 642 pages
...literature began. A good example of this art is supplied by the couplet which has just been quoted from ; ' True wit is nature to advantage dressed ; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.' which is Pope's compressed form of the following prose of Boileau ; ' Qu'est-ce qu'une... | |
| Old favourites, Matilda Sharpe - 1881 - 438 pages
...meditate by night .... Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem ; To copy Nature is to' copy them. 297. True wit is Nature to advantage dressed ; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed ; Something, whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of... | |
| Theology - 1881 - 440 pages
...the Stagirite, formed the tribunal before which all things were tried. Pope himself defines it thus : "True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." In the words of Mr. Leslie Stephen, " The dominant figure in Pope's day was the wit.... | |
| Charles Porterfield Krauth - Philosophy - 1881 - 1080 pages
...feeling of wit is occasioned by those relations of ideas which excite surprise, and surprise alone." " True wit is nature to advantage dressed; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed; Something, whose truth convinced at sight, we find, That gives us back the language... | |
| Harriet B. Swineford - American literature - 1883 - 302 pages
...Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. True wit is Nature to advantage dressed — What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. Essay on Oriticivm. To err is human ; to forgive, divine. Essay on Criticism. He's... | |
| Familiar quotations - 1883 - 942 pages
...Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.1 Line 53. True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. Line 97. Words are like leaves ; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath... | |
| William Swinton - Readers - 1885 - 620 pages
...believes his own. A little learning is a dangerous thing ! Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their... | |
| James Boswell - Authors, English - 1885 - 454 pages
...wit of all kinds too ; not merely that power of language which Pope chooses to denominate wit — " True wit is Nature to advantage dressed ; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed " — but surprising allusions, brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits.... | |
| 1885 - 248 pages
...things in a better way than anybody else, and in a form that can be remembered, thus defined wit : "True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed, Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of the... | |
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