Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-02-17
VOL. B. NO. 164.
DAILY VIRGINIAN.
What In Wito

gives US IDt IhOu efHt HfmOHSfTuHuUm WITHOUT
the intermediate steps of the sy1logism. Cole
ridge with admirable acuteness. has said that
there is such thing scientific wit" Their.
fore pure wit sometimes gives an intellectual
pleasure without making US laugh. The wit that
makes us laugh most freely is that which instant
ly accepts another mans premises, and draws n
conclusion from them in its own favor. coun-
try gentleman was once showing his improve
ments to the Prince de Ligne. and among other
things pointed out to him muddy spot which he
called his lake. 1T is rather shallow, is it no'"
said the Prince. al assure YOU, Prince, n man
drowned himself in it," "Ah, he must have been
n hntterer, them" answered DE Lignc
of the same kind is the story told of one of our
old Massachusetts, cergymen, DIR. Morse. At
association dinner. debate arose ns to the
benefit of whipping, in bringing up children
The Doctor took the affirmative, nnd his chief
opponent was young minister. whose reputa
tion for yeracty was not very high. He affirm
cd that parents often did barm 10 children by un-
just punishment from not knowing the facts Il
tho case, why" said he. .'tbe only time my
father ever whipped mo was for telling the truth
"Well,' retorted the Doctor, 'it cured you of it,
didn't itl'' In wit of this sort there is always
latent sylogism.
Then there is the wit which detects an uninten
tonal bit of satire in word of double meaning;
where Sir Henry Wotton takes advantage of
the phrase commonly used in his day to imply
it-saying, that ambassadors were persons
sont to lie abroad for the service of their
Prince.
On the other hand. think unconsciousue>s
and want of intention, or ut least tho pretence
oft, is more or less essential to the ludcrous.
For this reason what may be called the wit of g
vents il always ludcrous. Nothing can be more
50, for example than the Pope's sending card
nails hat to John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
which arrived in England after Henry the Eighth
had taken oil that proate's head. SO when DIR.
Johnson said very gravely one day that he had
often thought that il he had n harem he would
dress all the ladies in white lnen--the unmten.
tional incongruty of the speech with the charno-
ter of the great moraist threw Boswell into an ex-
tncy of laughter. Like this is the ludicrousness
ofPopo Paul the Ill, writing to the Council of
Trent, that they should begin with original sin
observing yet due respect unto the Emperor.
Captain Basil Hail. when he travelled in this
country found the Yankees people entirely des
titute of wit and humor Perhaps our gravity,
which ought to have put him ON tho right scent,
deceived him. do not know more perfect ex-
ample of wit than something which us have heard
said to the captain himself. stopping nj n
village inn there came up thunder. storm. and
Captain Hall, surprised that a new country should
have reached such perfection in these mcroro
logic manufactures, said to a bystander, why,
you have very heavy thunder here "Well,yes,"
of inhabitants" Here is another story which
sago-d driver told me once wag on the outside
of the coach called to man by tho roadside who
was fencing some very poor land-'l say, mister
what are you fencing that pasture forl 1t would
take forty acres ont to starve II mddled sized
COW" "Jes-so; and I'm fenoin' of II to keep
cour kettle eout!"
Now in the forty acre. part of this story we
have an instance of what is called American ex-
aggeration; and which take to be the symptom
of most promise in Yankee fun. For it marks
TINT desire for intensity of expression which is
phase of Imagination. Indeed many, of these
sayings purely imaginatye-as where Il man
said Of painter he knew, that 'he painted n
shmglo so exactly like marble that when it fell
into the river it sunk" A man told me once
that the peonlc of certain country town were so
universally dishonest. .that they had to take i'll
their stone walls at night" In some of these sto
rics, Imagination appears yet more strongly and
in thnt contradictory union with the understand
ing which lies at the root of the highest humor.
For example, coachman driving up some noun
tains in Vermont, asked if they were as steep
on the ether side, also! Steep! chain -lightnin'
couldn't go down em without the breechin' on ~
believe that there is more latent humor among
the American people than in any other, and that
it will one day develope itself and find expression
through art