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 Caesars nihil didicisset, erraret minus; again, Aureum hoc faciendum est, quia plurimum jam auro honos venit.

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

ARGUTIAE a comparatione, 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 disimile; e.g. Par est pauper nil cupiens principi omnia habenti.

ARGUTIAE a repugnantiur, 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.