The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-05-09

wrT aNo,juMoR.


WIT AND HuMQR.
Their Old Meaning, and the Wide Dis
tiuetion Between Them.
Laughter may be either genial or
malignant, but 1t IS allied rather to
ekotism and contempt than 10 affec-
tfon 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 ityaparedies
are ladieroux Daniel O'Connell,
wishing to tidieule three obnoxious
Colonels, wrote the followingi
Three Colonies, in three slant counties born,
Lincoln, Armagh and Sligo did adorn-
The first in ma.chless impqderse surpassed
The next In bigotry. in both thu 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 a
committee on a wooden pavement
was humorous: We have only to
lay our heads together and the thing
is done. Z But Bean9sSwift was witty
when some one remarked to him.
do you know, sir. TINT have sct1rp
fort wit?9 and he replied: Then,
young MAN. take my advice and sit
down again. y The altruistic tenn
permanent inclines to humor, the ego
tistic to wit There is little humor in
Swift. Heine orsVoltaire.
The old meaning OF witwas clever
ness or intelligence. the derivation Of
wit being from the Anglo-Saxon verb
I-iwit;rn, to -know--Me have a survival
Of this original meaning in the. col
loquial phrases, '.He has lost his
wits, He is at his wits en- D. " We
now associate wit, not with wisdom.
bit with mirth. 1t has become so far de-
graded that paronomasia is considered
species OF wit While nothing can
be more tedious thanthe inveterate
punster, a good pun has its relish. <
Mrs Grote once appeared at soiree
With queer Kind 81 turban on her
head. Look at that. said Sydney
Smith, "that the origin of the word
grotesaue. Daniel Purcell, asked to
make pun fmpr omptu, asked ''On
what subject?" "Oh,, any subject
the King" .sAh. but the King is nc
subject, was the prompt reply
The old meaning of humor was a
harmless .eccentricity. In its modern
Specification, humor is a combination
of the faughabfe WITH an element d
tenderness, sympathy or affection.
As Carlyle says: "Humor Is q sympa:
thy with. the seamy side of things, y
and Thaekeray: "Humor is a com
pound OF wit and love"
As to the distinction between vii
isl1Ia hurlror.a find tt1set wit IL sting:
ing, humor kindly; that wit is con.
contracted and -..Brevfty 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- as 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 il
the product OF art and fancy Per-
haps the distinction has been ex.
pressed most clearly by Webster: xvii
/
thought or occurrence, and by sud
den turn. presenting it under aspects
wholly new and unexpectedA appar
emily natural and admissiblSAi If moi
perfectly just, and bearing on the sub
ject or the parties concerned with 9
laughable keenness and force Ac
1 cording to this the following story
would be witty: A mute" who had
laughed at a funeral was upbraided by
his master. You rascal, you, | have
been raising your wages for these two
years past on condition that yor
| should appear more sorrowful, and the
higher wages you receive the happier
you look. !" :
"Humor," says Webster, consists
primarily in taking up the .peculiari
lies of humorist Can eccentric per.
sony and drawing them out, as Addison
did those of Sir Roger de Coverly, Sc
that we enjoy hearty, good-natured
laugh at the unconscious development
he makes of his whims and oddities
From this original sense.the term has
been widened to embrace other sources
Of kindly mirth Of the same general
character. Don Quixote is humorous
when he grayely remarks to his fol.
lower: The reason. Sancho, why
thou feelest that pain all down thy
back is that the stick which gave il
thee was OF length to that extent. -
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