[19]
When, therefore, we speak
of the salt of wit, we refer to wit about which there
is nothing insipid, wit, that is to say, which serves
as a simple seasoning of language, a condiment which
is silently appreciated by our judgment, as food is
appreciated by the palate, with the result that it
stimulates our taste and saves a speech from becoming tedious. But just as salt, if sprinkled freely
over food, gives a special relish of its own, so long
as it is not used to excess, so in the case of those
who have the salt of wit there is something about
[p. 449]
their language which arouses in us a thirst to hear.
Again, I do not regard the epithet facelus as applicable solely to that which raises a laugh.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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