Excerpt from The Jest Book: The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings The compiler of this volume has felt the importance of his task, and diligently sought how to distinguish true wit from false, the pure gold from Brummagem brass. He has carefully perused the Eight learned chapters on Thoughts on Jesting, by Frederick Meier, Professor of Philosophy at Halle, and Member of the Royal Acad emv of Berlin, wherein it is declared that a jest is an extreme fine Thought, the result of a great Wit and Acu men, which are eminent Perfections of the Soul. Hypocrites, with the appearance but without the reality of virtue, condemn from the teeth outwardly the Laughter and Jesting which they sincerely approve in their hearts and many sincere virtuous Persons also account them criminal, either from Temperament, Melancholy, or erro neous Principles of Morality. As the Censure of such Persons gives me pain, so their Approbation would give me great pleasure. But as long as they consider the suggestions of their Temperament, deep Melancholy, and erroneous Principles as so many Dictates of real Virtue, so long they must not take it amiss if, while I revere their Virtue, I despise their Judgment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.