00048--How does Addison differentiate between true wit and false wit?

            Wit is an art of expression.  It can be found in the use of words or in the use of ideas.  It is produced by combining similar or congruous ideas or words to produce pleasure and surprise at the same time.  In other words, true wit appears in "the assemblage of ideas wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy".  Addison further says that this assemblage must give 'Delight' and 'Surprise'.  This will constitute true wit.  If this assemblage gives only one – either Delight or Surprise' – it would produce false wit.  For this, it is necessary that ideas should not lie too near or be very obvious in meaning, otherwise they would produce only false wit.  If we compare a white thing with milk or snow, it produces not wit.  But if something more is added to it, which gives delight and surprise, it will produce wit.  Addison gives an example.  If a poet says that the bosom of his mistress is as white as snow, there is not wit.  But when he adds, with a sigh, that it is as 'cold' too, it is true wit.  False wit generally arises from the resemblance and congruity of letters, words or phrases.  In this case, new words are framed by the rearrangement of letters in a word; or by using words which have the same sound but different meanings (as , rode and road), or one word having two meanings (as 'bat').  They produce false wit.  However, too much use of wit often makes the meaning obscure.