Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-04-18
WIT AND huMoR.
Their Old Morning, and the Wide Dis
tinction Between Them.


egotism and contempt than to affec-
ton and devotedne5s, 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. DAME; O'Connel,
wishing to iidicule three obnoxious
Colonels, wrote the following:
Three Ce!onels In three slant counties born
Lincoln, Armagh and Sligo did adorn.
The first in matchless impudencs surpassed,
The next in bigotry. in both the last
The force OF nature could no further 80;
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 o wooden pavement
was humorous: ave 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 a witp" 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 being from the Anglo-Saxon verb
witan, to know. We have q 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 can
be more tedious than the inveterate
punster, a good pun has its relish.
Mrs. Grote once appeared at solree
with queer kind of turban on her
head. Look at that" said Sydney
Smith, that's the origin of the word
grotesque. Daniel Purcell, asked to
make a pun impromptu, asked; "On
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 a sympa-
thy with tho seamy side of things,
and Thackeray: "iumor is CON-
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" whole volume
may be humorous According to Sgd
ney Smith, wit discovers real relations
that are not apparent, and humor adj
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: xvi
denotes the power of seizing on some
thought or occurrence, and by a sud
den turn, presenting it under aspect
wholly new and neXpected-appar
emily natural and admissible, if no
perfectly just, and bearing on tho sub
ject or the pa ties concerned with |
laughabe keenncss and force" Ac
cording to this the following stor,
would be witty: A mute" who hat
laughed at funeral was upbraided b,
his master. "You rascal, you, hav,
been raising your wages for these tw,
years past on condition that yol
should appear more sorrowful, and tn
higher wages you receive the happie
you look. :"
"Humor." says Webster, consist
primarily in taking up the peculiari
ties OF humorist Gan eccentric per
sony and drawing them out, rs Addison
did those of Sir Roger de Coverly, s.
that we enjoy hearty, good. natures
laugh at the unconscious development
he makes of his whims and oddities
From this original sense the term ha
been widened to embrace other source
of kindly mirth of the same genera
character. Don Quixote is humorou
when he gravely remarks to his fol
lower: 1.-The reason, Sancho, VIII
thou feelest that pain all down tn
back Is that the stick which gave |
| thee was of length to that EXTENT
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