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[7]
As for jests, since they may sometimes be useful
in debates, the advice of Gorgias was good—to confound the opponents'
earnest with jest and their jest with earnest. We have stated in the
Poetics1 how many kinds of jests there
are, some of them becoming a gentleman, others not. You should therefore choose
the kind that suits you. Irony is more gentlemanly than buffoonery; for the
first is employed on one's own account, the second on that of another.
1 The chapters are lost （cp. 1.11.29）.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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