The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Jonathan Swift (16671745)An Academy of Wits
I
The undertaker himself will publish his proposals with all convenient speed; to which I shall refer the curious reader for a more particular account, mentioning at present only a few of the principal schools. There is first a large periphrastic school, with French and Italian masters; there is also the spelling-school, a very spacious building; the school of looking-glasses; the school of swearing; the school of critics; the school of salivation; the school of hobby-horses; the school of poetry; the school of tops; the school of spleen; the school of gaming; with many others, too tedious to recount. No person to be admitted a member into any of these schools, without an attestation under two sufficient persons’ hands, certifying him to be a wit.