Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-05-10
-s.-si
Wit AND 4uMOR.


WI 49, thStss>t.
Their Old Meaning. and the Wide Dis.
tinction Between Them.
Laughter may be either genial or |
malignant, but it is allied rather to |
egotism and contempt than to affec-
tion and devotedness, the chief source
Of the Iudicrous 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'Connell,
wishing to ridicule three obnoxious
Colonies. wrote the following:
Three Colonels, in three slant counties born,
Lincoln, Armagh and Sligo did adorn.
The first in matchless impotence surpassed,
The next In bigotry. in both the last.
The force of nature could no further go;
To beard the third she shaved the other two.
When we find the laughter shading
into malignity we have wit When
we find the laughter kindly we have
humor. Sydney Smiths remark to
committee on a wooden pavement
was humorous: eve 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 | have set up
for WITT" and he replied: Then,
| young man, take my ADVICE and sit
| down again" The altruistic tenn
| permanent 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 beir~ from the Anglo-Saxon verb
witan, to know. We have survival
OF this original 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 paronomasia is considered
a species of wit. While nothing cal
be more tedious than the inveterat,
punster, good pun has its relish.
Mrs. Grote once appeared at a soire
with a queer kind of turban on he
head. s.Look at that" said Sydne
Smith, that's the origin Of the wor
grotesque. Daniel Purcell, asked t
make pun impromptu, asked: 20
what subject" "Oh, any subject
the King" '.Ah, but the King is n
subject" was the prompt reply.
The old meaning of humor was
harmless eccentricity. In its moder
Specification, humor is mbinatio
of the laughable with an element {
tenderness, sympathy or affection
I, As Carlyle says: ..Humor is symp;
, thy with the seamy side of things,
and Thackeray: "Humor is con
pound of wit and love"
As to the distinction between W
and humor, we find that wit is stin,
: ing, humor kindly; that wit is col
centrated and BRIEF Brevity is Il
:, soul of wit''-while whole volun
may be humorous. According to Sy
:. ney Smith, wit discovers real relation
! that are not apparent, and humor a
= mits apparent relations that are n
real.
According to Hazlitt 'Humor is tt
= describing of the ludicrous as it is
= itself; wit is the exposing of it by col
pairing or contrasting it with som
:. thing else. Humor is. as it were, t
growth of nature and accident; wit
:, the product of art and fancy Pe
= haps the distinction has been c
:. pressed most clearly by Webster: ~
= denotes the power of selling on sol
= thought or occurrence, and by a ST
J ! If I1nHpp
- wholly new and pected-app;
- emily natural and admissible, if I
- perfectly just and bearing on the 81
= iect or the pa ties concerned with
rs laughable keenness and force.
~ cording to this the following ste
would be witty: A mute" who h
laughed at a funeral was upbraided
his master. You rascal. you. hs
~ been raising your wages for these t
he years past on condition that J
Is should appear more sorrowful. and
nd higher wages you receive the happ
MS you look.
he ..Humor," says Webster, "const
,te primarily in taking up the peculi;
IN. ties of humorist Gan eccentric r
ed SOM and drawing them out, as Addi
to did those of Sir Roger de Coverly
nd that we enjoy hearty, good-natu
il laugh at the unconscious developm
its he makes of his whims and oddlt
in From this original sense the term
NIL been widened to embrace other sour
zen of kindly mirth of the same gene
his character. Don Quixote is humor
is when he gravely remarks to his
its lower: THE reason, Sancho, v
ant thou feelest that pain all down
{ ot back is that the stick which CAV
ich thee was of length to that extent.
apr Home journal.
IN The Wise Girl of To-Day.