ten in the
morning
Whoever he was , ' twas a just and good observation in him . -- But the corollary drawn from it , namely , `` That it is this which has furnished us with such a variety of odd and whimsical characters ; '' -- that was not his ; -- it was found out by another man , at least a century and a half after him : Then again , -- that this copious store-house of original materials , is the true and natural cause that our Comedies are so much better than those of _ France _ , or any others that either have , or can be wrote upon the Continent : -- that discovery was not fully made till about the middle of King _ William 's _ reign , -- when the great _ Dryden _ , in writing one of his long prefaces , -LRB- if I mistake not -RRB- most fortunately hit upon it . Indeed toward the latter end of Queen _ Anne _ , the great _ Addison _ began to patronize the notion , and more fully explained it to the world in one or two of his Spectators ; -- but the discovery was not his . -- Then , fourthly and lastly , that this strange irregularity in our climate , producing so strange an irregularity in our characters , -- doth thereby , in some sort , make us amends , by giving us somewhat to make us merry with when the weather will not suffer us to go out of doors , -- that observation is my own ; -- and was struck out by me this very rainy day , _ March _ 26 , 1759 , and betwixt the hours of nine and ten in the morning . Thus -- thus , my fellow-labourers and associates in this great harvest of our learning , now ripening before our eyes ; thus it is , by slow steps of casual increase , that our knowledge physical , metaphysical , physiological , polemical , nautical , mathematical , ænigmatical , technical , biographical , romantical , chemical , and obstetrical , with fifty other branches of it , -LRB- most of 'em ending as these do , in _ ical _ -RRB- have for these two last centuries and more , gradually been creeping upwards towards that Ἀκμὴ of their perfections , from which , if we may form a conjecture from the advances of these last seven years , we can not possibly be far off . When that happens , it is to be hoped , it will put an end to all kind of writings whatsoever ; -- the want of all kind of writing will put an end to all kind of reading ; -- and that in time , _ As war begets poverty ; poverty peace _ , -- must , in course , put an end to all kind of knowledge , -- and then -- we shall have all to begin over again ; or , in other words , be exactly where we started . ------ Happy !