Of the later comic writers, Congrève has an exuberance of wit, but Farquhar has more humour. It may, however, with too much truth, be affirmed of English comedy in general, (for there are some exceptions) that, to the discredit of our stage, as well as of the national delicacy and discernment, obscenity is made too often to supply the place of wit, and ribaldry the place of humour.

WIT and humour, as above explained, commonly concur in a tendency to provoke laughter, by exhibiting a curious and unexpected affinity; the first generally by comparison, either direct or implied, the second by connecting, in some other relation, such as causality or vicinity, objects apparently the most dis similar and heterogeneous; which incongruous affinity, we may remark by the way, gives the true meaning of the word oddity, and is the proper object of laughter.

THE difference between these and that grander kind of eloquence treated in the first part of this chapter, I shall, if possible, still farther illustrate, by a few similitudes borrowed from the optical science. The latter may be conceived as a plain mirror, which faithfully reflects the object in colour, figure, size, and posture. Wit, on the contrary, Proteus- like,transforms itself into a variety of shapes. It is now a convex speculum, which gives a just representation in form and colour, but withal reduces the greatest objects to the most despicable littleness; now a concave speculum, which

swells the smallest trifles to an enormous magnitude; now again a' speculum of a cylindrical, a conical, or an irregular make, which, though in colour, and even in attitude, it reflects a pretty strong resemblance, widely varies the proportions. Humour, when we consider the contrariety of its effects, contempt 'and laughter, (which constitute what in one word is term. ed derision) to that sympathy and love often produced by the pathetic, may in respect of these be aptly compared to a concave mirror, when the object is placed beyond the focus; in which case it appears by reflection, both diminished and inverted, circumstances which happily adumbrate the contemptible and the ridiculous.

SECT. III....Of ridicule.

THE intention of raising a laugh, is either merely to divert by that grateful titillation which it excites, or to influence the opinions and purposes of the hearers. In this also, the risible faculty, when suitably directed, hath often proved a very potent engine. When this is the view of the speaker, as there is always an air of reasoning conveyed under that species of imagery, narration, or description, which stimulates laughter, these, thus blended, obtain the appellation of ridicule, the poignancy of which hath a similar effect, in futile subjects, to that produced by what is called the vehement in solemn and important matters.

NOR doth all the difference between these lie in the dignity of the subject. Ridicule is not only confined to questions of less moment, but is fitter for refuting error than for supporting truth; for restraining from wrong conduct, than for inciting to the practice of what is right. Nor are these the sole restrictions; it is not properly levelled at the false, but at the absurd in tenets; nor can the edge of ridicule strike with equal force every species of misconduct it is not the criminal part which it attacks, but that which we de-nominate silly or foolish. With regard to doctrine, it is evident that it is not falsity or mistake, but palpable error or absurdity, (a thing hardly confutable by mere argument) which is the object of contempt; and consequently those dogmas are beyond the reach of cool reasoning, which are within the rightful confines of ridicule. That they are generally conceived to be so, appears from the sense universally assigned to expressions like these, "Such a position is ridicu“lous.—It doth not deserve a serious answer." Every body knows that they import more than, "It is false," being, in other words, "This is such an extravagance, "as is not so much a subject of argument as of laugh"ter." And that we may discover what it is," "with regard to conduct, to which ridicule is applicable; we need only consider the different departments of tragedy and of comedy. In the last, it is of mighty influence; into the first, it never legally obtains admittance. Those things which principally come under its lash are aukwardness, rusticity, ignorance, cowardice, levity, foppery, pedantry, and affectation of e

swells the smallest trifles to an enormous magnitude; now again a speculum of a cylindrical, a conical, or an irregular make, which, though in colour, and even in attitude, it reflects a pretty strong resemblance, widely varies the proportions. Humour, when we consider the contrariety of its effects, contempt and laughter, (which constitute what in one word is term. ed derision) to that sympathy and love often produced by the pathetic, may in respect of these be aptly compared to a concave mirror, when the object is placed beyond the focus; in which case it appears by reflection, both diminished and inverted, circumstances which happily adumbrate the contemptible and the ridiculous.

SECT. III.....Of ridicule.

THE intention of raising a laugh, is either merely to divert by that grateful titillation which it excites, or to influence the opinions and purposes of the hearers. In this also, the risible faculty, when suitably directed, hath often proved a very potent engine. When this is the view of the speaker, as there is always an air of reasoning conveyed under that species of imagery, narration, or description, which stimulates laughter, these, thus blended, obtain the appellation of ridicule, the poignancy of which hath a similar effect, in futile subjects, to that produced by what is called the vehement in solemn and important matters.

rent methods pursued by the two famous Latin satirists, Juvenal and Horace. The one declaims, the other derides. Accordingly, as Dryden justly observest, vice is the quarry of the former, folly of the latter ‡. Thus, of the three graver forms, the aim, whether avowed or latent, always is, or ought to be, the im-. provement of morals; of the three lighter, the refinement of manners §. But though the latter have for their peculiar object manners, in the limited and distinctive sense of that word, they may, with propriety, admit many things which directly conduce to the advancement of morals, and ought never to admit a

+ Origin and progress of Satire.

The differences and relations to be found in the several forms of poetry mentioned, may be more concisely marked by the following scheme, which brings them under the view at once.

poet,

These observations will enable us to understand that of the

Ridiculum acri

Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res. Hor.

Great and signal, it must be owned, are the effects of ridicule; but the subject must always appear to the ridiculer, and to those affected by his pleasantry, under the notion of littleness and futility, two essential requisites in the object of contempt and risibility.