英國奧古斯督時代，「才智」是最關鍵的批評術語，也是最有問題的用詞。它既指某種官能，也指某種性質，其特徵包括妥適性、裝飾性、敏捷度、變化、綜合、取樂、相似、一致、出奇、真理、創造．．．等等許多特點，但其最精華的意涵似乎是貼切的裝飾。此術語產生「真才與假才」之分辨，帶來「才智與判斷」的辯解，而有所謂「舊義與新危險義」的分野。它還可分成「寫作中的才智」與「寫作完成的才智」，而被比喻成「完美的孕育加上順利的生產」。它可從批評、詩作、與道德三方面加以聯想，而造成眾多紛雜的表現。到了新古典時期，批評家與修辭家已拿它來爭辯純樸與裝飾、話語與思想、理性與想像、悅人與誨人．．．等等文藝話題，而把它視同智慧、理解力、判斷力、想像力等官能。本文的結論是：奧古斯督時代所謂的「才智」可粗分為「內才」與「外才」，前者為發現真理真象的「創作前的才能」，後者是發現表達方式的「創作時的才能」，而兩者皆具分析批判與綜合創造的能力。在此認知下，才智之真假不在於作用的對象（意念或言語），只是自從修辭學與辯證學分家以來，顯然奧古斯督時代的人傾向修辭技巧，重視藝術勝過自然，因此強調貼切的裝飾勝於真知灼見，似乎看衣裳不看本體。這種現象對照後來的浪漫主義益趨明顯，因為浪漫的關鍵字是「想像力」，而想像力不只是找到美言巧語的才智而已，更是洞察真理的能力。

As a key critical term in the Augustan Age of English literature, “wit” has been abused and has become problematic. It denotes a faculty or a quality. It has many attributes: propriety, adornment, quickness, variety, synthesis, pleasure, resemblance, congruity, surprise, truth, creativity, etc. But proper adornment seems to be the most essential idea for the Augustans. The word engenders the problem of “true wit vs. false wit.” It is connected to the differentiation of wit from judgment. It is said to have “the old sense” and the new “dangerous sense.” It is divided into “wit writing” and “wit written.” It is compared to “a perfect conception with an easy delivery.” It is in fact considered in the light of criticism, poetry, and morality altogether, and found in a wide variety of manifestations. By the time of neoclassicism, it had become a signal word for extending arguments between rhetoricians and critics such as concerning simplicity vs. ornamentation, word vs. thought, reason vs. imagination, and delight vs. instruction, and it had been variously identified with intellect, understanding, judgment, imagination, etc. Our conclusion is: the Augustan “wit” can be dichotomized into “inward wit” and “outward wit,” can be a truth-finding “pre-composition power” and an expression-finding “composition power,” and can be analytical (critical) and synthetic (creative) at once. Under this condition, wit cannot be called true or false merely due to its being exercised on ideas (content) or on words (expression), althought we must admit that after the Ramist separation of rhetoric from dialectic, the Augustans had leaned towards the rhetorical side, thus valuing art over nature and regarding proper adornment or linguistic expression (the dress), rather than insightful truth (the body), as their primary concern. This Augustan “wit” naturally would be replaced by the Romantic “imagination,” which by nature and by definition in the course of historical change was a swing back to the dialectical side of truth.