or PUNS, an expression where a word has at once different meanings. The practice of punning is the miserable refuge of those who wish to pass for wits, without having a grain of wit in their composition. James the I. of England delighted in punning; and the taste of the sovereign was studied by the courtiers, and even by the clergy. Hence the sermons of that age abound with this species of false wit. It continued to be more or less fashionable till the reign of Queen Anne, when Addison, Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot, with the other real wits of that classical age, united their efforts to banish punning from polite composition. It is still admitted sparingly in conversation; and no one will deny that a happy pun, when it comes unsought, contributes to excite mirth in a company. A professed punster, however, who is always pouring forth his senseless quibbles, as Sancho Pança poured forth his proverbs, is such an intolerable nuisance in society, that we do not wonder at Pope or Swift having written a pamphlet with the title of God's Revenge against Punning.