Men have begun to observe and classify, they turn from creation to Criticism. ... It is the Fashion to be a wit. ... one must be able to conceal indecency with elegant diction; manners are everything, morals nothing.
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Source, in full
"The Comedies of William Congreve" in William and Mary College Monthly (September 1897), V, p. 41, as quoted in William L. Godshalk, "James Branch Cabell at William and Mary: the Education of a Novelist", The William and Mary Review, 5 (1967); reprinted in Kalki, Vol. II, No. 4, Whole No. 8 (1968)