The Portland daily press., 1874-12-17
HEERCANTHLE COURSE.
gYit and Hummer.

City Hall his lecture entitled wit ana HUM
or" 1t is bnt simple justice to Mr. Knight to
say that his lecture will compare favorably
with any delivered in the course this season.
and that in fact it is superior in ability and
subject matter to nearly all. We present an
abstract
That wit or humor can ever be 'blouSht
OUT by practice, by sitting down, however
doggedly,to work, may be fairly doubted In
deed, to undertake to be funny is very
serious business But in the first place, the
difference between these two great lights OF
life and knowledge should be remembered, 1of
in their true place and exercise they make up
the brightest and best phase of our literature
Even many cultivated persons have Jailed 10
make and hold this high distinction, for WIZ
may be, and generally is, anything but fun' IN
| which general class humor is almost always
| found. Any terse aad vigorous form Oh speech
| will answer the general definition OF IT., though
| it sting like q serpent's fangs, and rankle in
| the memory like poison in the blood, and, in
| fact, the w.ttiest men the world ever saw never
| knew the lovely light and the warmth OF hum
| or at ALL Wit is the sclmeter stroke that
makes the victim cringe long ere the abrasion or
| the blood appear; while humor may be only the
| stuffed club that contuses and puts to diScom-
| fitare and route, but never quite destroys. Wit
| is the tlunderD0C J0aG crashes through tue
| roof straight 10 tie mischief; while humor Is
that milder flash that throws its strange, fam
ttstic gleames into marvellous variety, leaping,
| glowing and binding in its glare, bat 1T never
| kills. Sure, johnson was great leader in the
| school of British wit, and who welded the two
handed sword of British crit cism with merci-
| less stroke, crushing every skull around MN
except that of the airy and shallow Boswell,
whe seems to have been the only spared monu,
ment of that wealth OF weird and wrath1ul
| wit sod To- .u thn of
whore service was sweetly slavish. johnson
| had many moods, and was, possibly, something
| more than wit; but in no true sense was ne a
humorist and no thoughtful essayst has ever
put him there. Sir Philip Francis was only
another, and a finer, type of the sturdy wit OF
that time and people-dogged, desperate, wit,
| that com posed its words by hard means and new
er ilumined by one CLEAN that lights uplthe do
! land and day. The wittiest American orator is
Wendell Phillips, a man whose very humanity
is set on an intellectual formula, whose Wit
spared not Lincoln in the terrible days OF ,6i,
nor Seward in his grave-whose intelligence Is
forever up to the snow line, and who never te!t
the tropical breath of humor. Indeed, wit is
unovely in all ages of literature, and not even
George d. Prentice, the wittiest American
editor who ever lived, had enough of humor's
gentleness to take the rancor from his remorse-
less wit. And the tendency of mere wit IS
always to embitter controversy, and to put OH
the fair consideration of most things.The study
of wit is hearty and vigorous, and sharpens
/ one in wonderful way, somehow, but its ten
! dency is too much of invctive, too broad beg
| gary of premises, too little of kindness.
But coming to the main branch OF this
theme, hnmor, let us lake it in its broadcast
and best estate, as we find it in cur own land,
for American humor is as much broader than
the British, with which alone we can compare
| it, as our country is broader than England
/ For hard-headed sense, and even Tor many
forms of wit the British Isles have ranked
high in production, but for cosmopolitan hum
or no people on the earth can compare with us
Punch has humor. but 1t is pinched, and pow
| dered. and provincial The world has wondered
| why New York has no Punch, like London or
| Berlin, but the world has not stepped to think
| that fun is so Astounding with us that no one
| receptcle can gatheriin any peculiar measure,
! so much of humorous matter is to be found IN
all our periodical literature-the leading news
papers even having feature If not depart
| ment
The lecturer then passed to brief review of
| the foremost American humorists, and the WORE
| accomplished by them Volumes OF bright
! things are said upon any general topic whlle IL
| is passing before the popular gaze, and speclnc
| reforms wrought by this same gentle agency.
John Phenix's matchless ridicule of govern
ment expenditures or the golden shore OF Cali
fornia shook the whole continent with laughter ;
and later the Bgelow Papers broke the front
rank of the slave power as connected WItn the
Mexican war. A long train of half-fedged
an inconstant humorsts followed these early
writers, most of whom wrote themselves out,
while few have fully impressed themselves
upon the literature of their times, in one or
two instances clothing such liz the armor OF
dialect, destructive and dominant. But much
as- has been glorious in this growth, vast
amount has been not only crude but coarse and
vulgar. There has been tendency to obscure
| spelling, and still absurder speech, nourished
by thoughtless clamor of partizanship and sold
in the market-places by indscriminate puthng,
| investing our literature with cownish and
vulgar swagger and slang that have no place IN
true humor-the humOr of humanity. Ruce
hands curse and despol humor. 1t is gentle
thing and must not be overdone.
A great number of illustrations were gwen OF
the comprehensive character of American, and
| its cosmopolitan range, utterances which the
speaker claimed could never be made by other
people on the whole earth, many of them OF an
intensely funny and epigrammatic kind. Aud
this understandable fund of humor is not only
the most buoyant and enjoyable OF all intellect
ual things, but is the deepest and most appre-
ciative of all human capabilities. The man
who has delicate humor is a man generally OF
| fine instincts, and without narrowness or bitter
& ness in his heart for huinor is wit with soul
in it, favored and seasoned through and through
with humanity and kindness. And so it be-
comes the great agency for good in the world.
''Cervantes smiled SPANS chivalry away"
and in thousand we'll remembered struggles
with humbugs and with grosser wrongs, when
/ the mere rawlings of wit have done their utmost
humor has lifted the clouds and let in the bles-
sed light of victory and peace. Humor is the
great interpreter of all sentiment. 1t gives
joy in times of joy, making gladness creep into
! our hearts as the sunlight dances on summer
waters, and in adversely its tears baptIze every
thing that is sacred in grief; for true humor
can strike every note on the scale of the human
passions.
The lecturer paid warm tribute to the great
masters of humor Berapger. Hood, Burns,
Goldsmith, Addison, Thackeray, Dickens, and
all the rest who have stood upon the charmed
heights, and urged that the standard be kept
| very high in all our literature. The nobest ex-
pressions of manliness come forth through this
gentle interpreter. Men have affected to des-
pise sentiment, but they know not what they
do. The intellect forms opinions, but the soul
speaks in sentiment. Sentiment is the Ian
guage of the heart, and true humor interpret
it to all the world, keeping in their just balance
the true harmonies of this poor wordsworth
that has had too much of the pageant of trag-
edy that creaks its chariot wheels along the
glaring, hardened highways, and too little OF
the gentle sunshine that penetrates every cram
ny of the crumbling back street. The lecture
closed with an appeal for love and light in lit
erature that can alone glorify the life or trans
figure the promise of what is to come.
| PLYMOUTH CHURCH FAIR.-The fair at Ply
mouth vestry this afternoon and evening prom
Uses 10 be success The ladies have spared
no pains to make the tables attractive. AT the
confectionery table will be found fine assort-