Industry and application to business makes amends for the want of a
quick and ready wit. Hence it is, that the victory is not always to the
strong, nor the race to the swift. Men of fine parts are apt to despise
the drudgery of business; but, by affecting to show the superiority of
their genius, upon many occasions, they run into too great an extreme
the other way; and the administration of their affairs is ruined through
idleness and neglect. What advantage has a man from the fertility of his
invention, and the vivacity of his imagination, unless his resolutions
are executed with a suitable and uninterrupted rapidity? In short, your
men of wit and fire, as they are called, are oftentimes sots, slovens,
and lazy fellows: they are generally proud and conceited to the last
degree; and, in the main, not the fittest persons for either
conversation or business. Such is their vanity, they think the
sprightliness of their humour inconsistent with a plain sober way of
thinking and speaking, and able to atone for all the little neglects of
their business and persons. But the world will not be thus imposed upon;
the man who would gain the esteem of others, and make his own fortune,
must be one that carries his point effectually, and finishes his course
without swerving or loitering. Men of dull parts, and a slow
apprehension, assisted by a continued diligence, are more likely to
attain this than your brisk retailers of wit, with their affected spleen
and indolence. And if business be but well done, no matter whether it be
done by the sallies of a refined wit, or the considering head of a plain
plodding man.