St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-12-12
SYDNEY SMITH.
Some characteristics OF . Famous Genlu,
and Wit.


and Wit.
When one tries to estimate the genius
of Sydney Smith, what strikes one
most is his humor unaccompanied by
melancholy. Most great humorists
have been melancholy men, like Mo-
liere. Sydney Smith. on the other hand,
was not jester only in his books and
in society. His wonderful high spirits
were almost constantly with him in the
home which they filled with happiness
and laughter. The essence of his wit is
this volatile and airy spirit, soaring
without trammel high above the labor
ing world. and discovering, from its
familiar heights, mirthful resemblances
in things where other men only saw in
congruities. Boldness, freedom, vivaci-
ty, these are the characteristics of his
humOr. He had an extraordinary
audacity in venturing almost on the
the verge of nonsense. He was daring
in humorous exaggeration. This buoy
ant courage and gayety of fancy some-
times give his good thing the character
of American humor.
He began his history of Ethics with
Socrates. and avowed that Aristotle
was not such a fool as many people think
who have never read him. The early
philosophers. he declared, ..were gallant
gentlemen, for whose company, / con-
fess, l have never had any great relish"
Again: '.If Orpheus or Linus sang, in
bad verse, such advice as a grandmother
would now give child of six years old,
he was thought to be inspired by the
gods, and statues or affairs were erected
to his memory" This good-humored
irreverence to the mighty shades of Or
pheus and Linus reminds one, in its
frank Philistianism, of Mark Twain and
the Innocents Abroad. / am accus-
toned to take Orpheus very seriously,
and do not quite enjoy this cavalier
treatment of Linus. But the gayety of
Sydney Smith becomes more boisterous
than ever when he tries to account for
the superiority of man over the beasts.
To these he allows the rudiments of our
faculties. But ICE, he remarked, live
longer. collect more experience and are
gregarious, SO that we communicate
our valuable discoveries to each
other. How different is the con-
duct. he says, of the unprogressive
lion! "a lion lives under hole in q
rock, and if any other lion happens to
pass by, they fight. Now whoever gets
habit of lying under a hole in a rock,
and fighting with every gentleman who |
passes near him, car not possibly make |
any progress" Again, lions are un-
communicative. very; hence their sta
tionary culture. IF lions would only
come together and growl out the OBJ |
servations they have made about killing
sheep and shepherds, and the most |
likely places for catching calf grazing.
they could not fail to improve" This
is quite in Marks way," as Lord Ten
nyson says. Again. when the Catholics
were oppressed in Ireland. Sydney Smith
said to the clergy and the Government,
why do you choose these fierce people
to bully? Why don't you torment Will
lam Wilberforce and the Clapham
saints? Why torture bulldog when
you can get frog or a rabbit" Again
he writes, ON pulpit oratory: "Why are
we natural everywhere but in the pulpit?
Why call in the aid of paralysis to piety?
Is sin. to be taken from man, as Eve
was from Adam. by casting him into
, uctp sleep' lei, Will all Ills |
audaciOus humor, his friends could
)nly once remember that Sydney
Smith made jest bordering on
towards things Scriptural,
md he instantly withdrew it, and
seemed ashamed of his words.
He was great lover of light; he re-
DICED, like Scott, in the discovery of
gas. a tlaring mode of lighting which
We do not much admire nowadays. This
owe of light, of shadowless views and
,lear-cut distinctions, was part of his
nature 1--WE are all for
and common-sense, he ex-
claimed, in the Edinburgh Recie,c, and
le was convinced that common-sense
md orthodoxy were at one in their de-
,isions. His mind was of the eighteenth
century. He had no more mercy on
and missionaries (guilty, both
# them, of .'enthusiasm'') than ON
'Puseyites, those ambiguous creatures,
he bats of the modern twilight of the
,ods.-Andre,c Lang, TN Rarper's Mag
zine.
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