or remoteness. This enchantress exults in reconciling con tradictions, and in hitting on that special light and attitude wherein you can discover an unexpected similarity in objects which, at first sight, appear the most dissimilar and heterogeneous. Thus high and low are coupled, humble and superb, momentous and trivial, common and extraordinary. Addison, indeed, observes,* that wit is often produced, not by the resemblance, but by the opposition of ideas. But this, of which, however, he hath not given us an instance, doth not constitute a different species, as the repugnance in that case will always be found between objects in other respects resembling; for it is to the contrast of dissimilitude and likeness, remoteness and relation in the same objects, that its peculiar effect is imputable. Hence we hear of the flashes and the sallies of wit, phrases which imply suddenness, surprise, and contrariety. These are illustrated, in the first, by a term which implies an instantaneous emergence of light in darkness; in the second, by a word which denotes an abrupt transition to things distant; for we may remark, in passing, that, though language be older than criticism, those expressions adopted by the former to elucidate matters of taste, will be found to have a pretty close conformity to the purest discoveries of the latter.

Nay, of so much consequence here are surprise and novelty, that nothing is more tasteless, and sometimes disgusting, than a joke that has become stale by frequent repetition. For the same reason, even a pun or happy allusion will appear excellent when thrown out extempore in conversation, which would be deemed execrable in print. In like manner, a witty repartee is infinitely more pleasing than a witty attack; for, though in both cases the thing may be equally new to the reader or hearer, the effect on him is greatly injured when there is ground to suppose that it may be the slow production of study and premeditation. This, however, holds most with regard to the inferior tribes of witticisms, of which their readiness is the best recommendation.

The other respect in which wit differs from the illustrations of the graver orator is the way wherein it affects the hearer. Sublimity elevates, beauty charms, wit diverts. The first, as has been already observed, enraptures, and, as it were, dilates the soul; the second diffuseth over it a serene delight; the third tickles the fancy, and throws the spirits into an agreeable vibration.

To these reflections I shall subjoin examples in each of the three sorts of wit above explained.

It will, however, be proper to premise that, if the reader should not at first be sensible of the justness of the solutions and explications to be given, he ought not hastily to form ak

* Spectator

unfavourable conclusion. Wherever there is taste, the witty and the humorous make themselves perceived, and produce their effect instantaneously; but they are of so subtle a nature that they will hardly endure to be touched, much less to undergo a strict analysis and scrutiny. They are like those volatile essences which, being too delicate to bear the open air, evaporate almost as soon as they are exposed to it. Accordingly, the wittiest things will sometimes be made to appear insipid, and the most ingenious frigid, by scrutinizing them too narrowly. Besides, the very frame of spirit proper for being diverted with the laughable in objects is so different from that which is necessary for philosophizing on them, that there is a risk that, when we are most disposed to inquire into the cause, we are least capable of feeling the effect; as it is certain that, when the effect hath its full influence on us, we have little inclination for investigating the cause. these reasons I have resolved to be brief in my illustrations, having often observed that, in such nice and abstract inquiries, if a proper hint do not suggest the matter to the reader, he will be but more perplexed by long and elaborate discussions.

For

Of the first sort, which consists in the debasement of things great and eminent, Butler, among a thousand other instances, hath given us those which follow:

"And now had Phoebus, in the lap

Of Thetis, taken out his nap:
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn."*

Here the low allegorical style of the first couplet, and the simile used in the second, afford us a just notion of this lowest species, which is distinguished by the name of the ludiAnother specimen from the same author you have in these lines:

crous.

"Great on the bench, great in the saddle,
That could as well bind o'er as swaddle,

Mighty he was at both of these,
And styled of war as well as peace:
So some rats of amphibious nature
Are either for the land or water."†

In this coarse kind of drollery those laughable translations or paraphrases of heroic and other serious poems, wherein the authors are said to be travestied, chiefly abound.

To the same class those instances must be referred in which, though there is no direct comparison made, qualities of real dignity and importance are degraded by being coupled with things mean and frivolous, as in some respect standing in the same predicament. An example of this I shall give from the same hand.

* Hudibras, part ii., canto 2.

† Ibid., part i., canto 1.

For when the restless Greeks sat down
So many years before Troy town,
And were renown'd, 2s Homer writes,

For well-soal'd boots* no less than fights."+

I shall only observe farther, that this sort, whose aim is to debase, delights in the most homely expressions, provincial idioms, and cant phrases.

The second kind, consisting in the aggrandizement of little things, which is by far the most splendid, and displays a soaring imagination, these lines of Pope will serve to illustrate : 'As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie

In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her in the bless'd abode
A hundred sons, and every son a god :

Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,

Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,

Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce."‡

This whole similitude is spirited. The parent of the celestials is contrasted by the daughter of night and chaos; heaven by Grub-street; gods by dunces. Besides, the parody it contains on a beautiful passage in Virgil adds a particular lustre to it. This species we may term the thrasonical, or the mockmajestic. It affects the most pompous language and sonorous phraseology as much as the other affects the reverse, the vilest and most grovelling dialect.

I shall produce another example from the same writer, which is, indeed, inimitably fine. It represents a lady employed at her toilet, attended by her maid, under the allegory of the celebration of some solemn and religious ceremony. The passage is rather long for a quotation, but as the omission of any part would be a real mutilation, I shall give it entire.

"And now unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd,
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores,
With head uncover'd, the cosmotic powers.
A heavenly image in the glass appears,
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
The inferior priestess at her altar's side,
Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride;
Unnumber'd treasures opes at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil.

* In allusion to the Evxvnuides Axalot, an expression which frequently scurs both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey.

+ Hudibras, part i., canto 2.

The passage is this:

+ Dunciad, B.

"Felix prole virum, qualis Berecynthia mater
Invenitur curru Phrygias turrita per ubes,
Læta deûm partu, centum complexa nepotes,

Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes.-ENEIS.

This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The tortoise here and elephant unite:

Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.
Her files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet doux.
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms,
The fair each moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face;
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,

And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes."*

To this ass also we must refer the applications or grave reflections to mere trifles; for that great and serious are naturally associated by the mind, and likewise little and trifling, is sufficiently evinced by the common modes of expression on these subjects used in every tongue. An apposite instance of such an application we have from Philips:

"My galligaskins, that have long withstood
The winter's fury and encroaching frosts,
By time subdued (what will not time subdue!),
An horrid chasm disclose."+

Like to this, but not equal, is that of Young:

"One day his wife (for who can wives reclaim !),
Levell'd her barbarous needle at his fame."

To both the preceding kinds the term burlesque is applied, but especially to the first.

Of the third species of wit, which is by far the most multifarious, and which results from what I may call the queerness or singularity of the imagery, I shall give a few specimens that will serve to mark some of its principal varieties. To illustrate all would be impossible.

The first I shall exemplify is where there is an apparent contrariety in the thing she exhibits as connected. of contrast we have in these lines of Garth:

"Then Hydrops next appears among the throng;
Bloated and big she slowly sails along :

But like a miser in excess she's poor,

And pines for thirst amid her watery store."{

This kind

The wit in these lines doth not so much arise from the comparison they contain of the dropsy to a miser (which falls under the description that immediately succeeds), as from the union of contraries they present to the imagination, poverty in the midst of opulence, and thirst in one who is already drenched in water.

A second sort is where the things compared are what with dialecticians should come under the denomination of disparates, being such as can be ranked under no common genus. Of this I shall subjoin an example from Young:

*Rape of the Lock, canto 1. Universal Passion.

† Splendid Shilling.
◊ Dispensary.

"Health chiefly keeps an Atheist in the dark;

A fever argues better than a Clarke;

Let but the logic in his pulse decay.

Then Grecian he'll renounce, and learn to pray.' "#

Here, by implication, health is compared to a sophister, or darkener of the understanding, a fever to a metaphysical disputant, a regular pulse to false logic, for the word logic in the third line is used ironically. In other words, we have here modes and substances, the affections of the body, and the exercise of reason strangely, but not insignificantly, linked together; strangely, else the sentiment, however just, could not be denominated witty; significantly, because an unmeaning jumble of things incongruous would not be wit, but non

sense.

A third variety in this species springs from confounding artfully the proper and the metaphorical sense of an expression. In this way, one will assign as a motive what is discovered to be perfectly absurd when but ever so little attended to; and yet, from the ordinary meaning of the words, hath a specious appearance on a single glance. Of this kind you have an instance in the subsequent lines:

"While thus they talk'd, the knight

Turn'd th' outside of his eyes to white,

As men of inward light are wont

To turn their optics in upon't."t

For whither can they turn their eyes more properly than to the light?

A fourth variety, much resembling the former, is when the argument of comparison (for all argument is a kind of comparison) is founded on the supposal of corporeal or personal attributes in what is strictly not susceptible of them, as in this: "But Hudibras gave him a twitch

As quick as lightning in the breech,
Just in the place where honour's lodged,
As wise philosophers have judg'd;
Because a kick in that place more

Hurts honour than deep wounds before."+

Is demonstration itself more satisfactory? Can anything be hurt but where it is? However, the mention of this as the sage deduction of philosophers is no inconsiderable addition to the wit. Indeed, this particular circumstance belongs properly to the first species mentioned, in which high and low, great and little, are coupled. Another example, not unlike the preceding, you have in these words:

"What makes morality a crime
The most notorious of the time;
Morality, which both the saints
And wicked too cry out against?

* Universal Passion. Ibid, part ii., canto 3.

+ Hudibras, part iii., canto 1