The agreeable eye

an eudæmonistarchives

on cleverness

Cleverness is a certain knack or aptitude at doing certain things, which depend more on a particular adroitness and off-hand readiness than on force or perseverance, such as making puns, making epigrams, making extempore verses, mimicking the company, mimicking a style, etc. Cleverness is either liveliness and smartness, or something answering to sleight of hand, like letting a glass fall sideways off a table, or else a trick, like knowing the secret spring of a watch…

—William Hazlitt (‘The Indian Jugglers’ in Table-Talk)


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ego hoc feci mm–MMXXIV · cc 2000–2024 M.F.C.