On inverse probability

Abstract

The task of an essayist is by no means an easy one. His work must be entertaining but not frivolous, topical yet possessive of a certain enduring quality, pungent but not acrid, enlightening but not prescriptive. The essayist must possess a wide general knowledge of contemporary as well as classical culture (these terms being interpreted in the broadest possible sense), for often a pithy mot juste from an earlier writer will cast an unusual and unexpected light on an otherwise mundane observation. Such allusion, of course, should not be¹

merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative, for if so it can impart little import.

It is indeed a thing so versatile and multiform, appearingin so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notice thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Isaac Barrow, Sermon XIV. Against foolish Talking and jesting.