First of all, He is exceedingly given to little Apish Tricks and Buffooneries.
Secondly, He so much delights in Mimickry, that it is all one to him whether he exposes by it Vice and Folly, Luxury and Avarice; or, on the contrary, Virtue and Wisdom, Pain and Poverty.
Thirdly, he is wonderfully unlucky, insomuch that he will bite the Hand that feeds him, and endeavour to ridicule both Friends and Foes indifferently. For, having but small Talents, he must be merry where he can, not where he should.
Fourthly, Being entirely void of Reason, he pursues no Point either of Morality or Instruction, but is Ludicrous only for the sake of being so.
Fifthly, being incapable of anything but Mock-Representations, his Ridicule is always Personal, and aimed at the Vicious Man, or the Writer; not at the Vice, or at the Writing.
I have here only pointed at the whole Species of False Humorists, but as one of my principal Designs in this Paper is to beat down that malignant Spirit, which discovers itself in the Writings of the present Age, I shall not scruple, for the future, to single out any of the small Wits, that infest the World with such Compositions as are ill-natured, immoral and absurd. This is the only Exception which I shall make to the General Rule I have prescribed my self, of attacking multitudes. Since every honest Man ought to look upon himself as in a Natural State of War with the Libeller and Lampooner, and to annoy them wherever they fall in his way, this is but retaliating upon them and treating them as they treat others.
