Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-18
WIT AND HuMoR.

WIT AND HUMOR.
Their Old Moaning, and sho Wide Dis.
tinctiSn Between Them.
Laughter may be either genial or
malignant, but it is allied rather to
egotism and contempt than to affec-
ton and devotedness. the chief source
Of the ludicrous being the degradation
Of some person or thing which we
have been accustomed to associate with
power. dignity or gravity. Parodies
are ludicrous Daniel O'COnnel,,
wishing to ridicule three obnoxious
Colonies, wrote the following:
Three Colonels in three slant counties born,
Lincoln, Armagh and Sligo did adorn.
Tho drst in maIchless impotence surpassed.
The a 1t In b. Rotry. IN both tho last
Tho force ( nature could no further 20;
To beard the third she shaved the other two.
When wc find the laughter shading
into malignity we have wit When
we find the laughter kindly we have
humor. Sydney Smiths remark to q
committee on q wooden pavement
was humorous: "We have only to
lay our heads together and the thing
is done" But Dean Swift was witty
when some one remarked to him:
"Do you know, sir, that l have set up
for WIFI" and he replied: Then.
young man. take my advice and sit
down again. The altruistic tenn
perament inclines to humor. the ego
tistic to wit There is little humor in
Swift. Heine or Voltaire.
The old meaning of wit was clever
ness or intelligence. the derivation of
wit being from the Ang!o-Saxon verb
witan. to know. We have a survival
of this o iginal meaning in the col
loquial phrases. He has lost his
Wits" He is at his wits end" We
now associate wit. not with wisdom.
but with mirth. 1t has become SO far de-
graded that paronomasiai is considered
a species of wit While nothing can
be more tedious than the inveterate
punster, good pun has its relish.
Mrs. Grote once appeared at soiree
with a queer kind of turban on her
head. Look at that" said Sydney
Smith. "thats the origin of the word
grotesque." Daniel Purcell. asked to
make pun impromptu, asked: ION
what subject?" ''Oh. any subject
the King" "Ah. but the King is no
subject" was the prompt reply.
The old meaning of humor was a
harmless eccentricity. In its modern
Specification, humor is combination
of the laughable with an element OF
tenderness, sympathy or affection.
As Carlyle says: ''Humor Is sympa-
thy with the seamy side of things"
and Thackeray: 'Humor is q COM
pound of wit and love"
As to the distinction between wit
and humor, we find that wit is sting
ing. humor kindly; that wit is con-
centrated and brief-''Brevity is the
soul of wit"-while whole volume
may be humorous According to Sgd
ney Smith, wit discovers real relations
that are not apparent and humor ad.
mits apparent relations that are not
real.
According to Hazlitt '.Humor is the
describing of the ludicrous rs it is in
itself; wit is the exposing of it by COM
pairing or contrasting it with some
thing else. Humor is. as it were, the
growth of nature and accident; wit is
the product of art and fancy" Per.
haps the distinction has been ex.
pressed most clearly by Webster: "Wit
denotes the power of selling on some
thought or occurrence. and by a sud.
den turn. presenting it under aspects
wholly new and unexpected-appar.
emily natural and admissible. if not
perfectly just, and bearing on the sub
ject or the pa ties concerned with
laughable keenncss and force" Ac.
cording to this the following story
would be witty: A mute who had
laughed at q funeral was upbraided by
his master. ''You rascal. you. have
been raising your wages for these two
years past on condition that you
should appear more sorrowful. and the
higher wages you receive the happier
you look. "
'.Humor." says Webster. consists
primarily in taking up the peculiari-
ties of humorist Gan eccentric per-
sony and drawing them out. as Addison
did those of Sir Roger de Coverly. so
that we enjoy hearty. good-natured
laugh at the unconscious development
he makes of his whims and oddities.
From this original sense the tenn has
been wideued to emb ace other sources
of kindly mirth of the same general
character" Don Quixote Is humorous
when he gravely remarks to his fol-
lower: THE reason. Sancho. why
thou feelest that pain all down thy
back is that the stick which gave It
thee was of length to that EXTENT
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