On Sarcasm

Godey's, 1861

Be careful also how you indulge in sarcasm.  If you are constitutionally inclined to this, you will find that there is no point in your character which needs to be more faithfully guarded.  There are some few cases in which severe irony may be employed to advantage; cases in which vice and error will shrink before it, when they will unhesitatingly confront every other species of opposition. 

It too often happens, however, that those who possess this talent use it indiscriminately; and perhaps even more frequently to confound modest and retiring virtue than to abash bold and insolent vice. 

--The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility (1856), p. 145