ssions of
our mind in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. The trick of the
monkey using the cat's paw to roast a chestnut, is only a piece of
shrewd malice in that _turpissima bestia_, which humbles us so sadly by
its similarity to us. Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man
whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. Your
definition is good, said Mr. Burke, and I now see the full force of the
common proverb, 'There is _reason_ in roasting of eggs.' When Mr.
Wilkes, in his days of tumultuous opposition, was borne upon the
shoulders of the mob, Mr. Burke (as Mr. Wilkes told me himself, with
classical admiration,) applied to him what _Horace_ says of _Pindar_,

..._numeris_que fertur
LEGE _solutis_. [_Odes_, iv. 2. 11.]

Sir Joshua Reynolds, who agrees with me entirely as to Mr. Burke's.
fertility of wit, said, that this was 'dignifying a pun.' He also
observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an
evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit
(whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, since the former
edition, that some persons have objected to the instances which I have
given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious
friend; the specimens produced having, it is alleged, more of conceit
than real wit, and being merely sportive sallies of the moment, not
justifying the encomium which, they think with me, he undoubtedly
merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular
instances of wit, which is of so airy and spiritual a nature as often to
elude the hand that attempts to grasp it. The excellence and efficacy of
a _bon mot_ depend frequently so much on the occasion on which it is
spoken, on the particular manner of the speaker, on the person to whom
it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute
particulars which cannot be easily enumerated, that it is always
dangerous to detach a witty saying from the group to which it belongs,
and to set it before the eye of the spectator, divested of those
concomitant circumstances, which gave it animation, mellowness, and
relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first
instances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and
brilliant fancy; but am very sensible that his numerous friends could
have suggested many of a superior quality. Indeed, the being in company
with him, for a single day, is sufficie