Lacon: or, Many Things in a Few Words

Summary

Lacon: or, Many Things in a Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think is a collection of short reflections by the English clergyman Charles Caleb Colton. The first volume appeared in London in 1820 and a second in 1822. The title refers to the Laconians, or Spartans, who were famous in ancient Greece for saying much in very few words, which is also the source of the English word laconic. The book has no plot or continuous argument. It consists of hundreds of numbered paragraphs, marked with Roman numerals, ranging from a single sentence to a page or more. Colton writes about human nature and society: ambition, envy, flattery, friendship, money and gambling, religion and hypocrisy, the duties of rulers, the habits of writers and critics, and the uses of time. His manner owes much to the French moralists, especially La Rochefoucauld, and to English essayists such as Bacon. Many entries turn on a neat contrast or a surprising twist, and Colton often aims at vanity and self-deception. Lacon sold widely, went through many editions on both sides of the Atlantic, and was mined for quotations by later anthologies. Its best-known line is aphorism CCXVII in the first volume, which in full reads: 'Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.' The saying is often misattributed to Oscar Wilde, and a longer version that adds a second clause about mediocrity and greatness does not appear in Colton's book; it is a modern elaboration. Colton's own life was unsettled. He gambled heavily and left England to escape his creditors, and he died in France in 1832. The book that made his name survives mostly through a handful of sayings, but browsing it shows a sharp and sometimes cynical observer of the society of his time. This library offers Lacon as an abstract with its one famous saying, checked against a nineteenth-century printing, rather than as a full text.

Top Lessons

• Saying much in few words

  Colton's aphorisms show how a single well-built sentence can carry a whole observation about human nature. Students can study how contrast and compression make a line memorable.

• Checking a famous quotation

  The line 'Imitation is the sincerest of flattery' is often credited to Oscar Wilde or quoted with an added clause. Going back to an early printing shows what Colton actually wrote and when.

• Flattery and sincerity

  Colton suggests that copying someone is a more honest compliment than praise, because it shows what we really admire. The idea invites reflection on influence, originality and respect.

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