witty and acute sayings, which commonly signify something further than what their mere words at first sight seem to import.—Writers on rhetoric speak of divers species of argutiae, viz.

ARGUTIAE ab alieno, when something is said, which seems repugnant either to the nature and property of a thing, or to common custom, the laws, &c., which yet in reality is consistent therewith; or when something is given as a reason of another, which yet is not the reason of it. For instance, Si Caius ubil didicisset, errasset minus: again, Aureum hoc faculum est, quia plurimus jam auro bonos venit.

ARGUTIAE ab allegoriae, those wherein allusion is made to some history, fable, sentence, proverb, or the like; e.g. Multi umbrae captant & carnera amittunt.

ARGUTIAE a comparatis, when two things are compared together, which yet at first sight appear very different from each other, but so as to make a pretty kind of simile or dissimile; e.g. Par est pauper uti cupiens principi omnia habenti.

ARGUTIAE a repugnantibus, when two things meet in a subject, which yet regularly cannot be therein; or when two things are opposed to each other, yet the epithet of the one is attributed to the other; e.g. Dum tacent clamant.