The San Francisco call., 1895-11-17

it associates itself with the sympathetic emo
| uons, continually passes into poetry. Lelgh
| Hunt has said: "Nearly all great humorlstS
may be called prose-poets
we can hardly avoid sense of confusion as
| to the nature Of humor from the fact that
| those who have written most eloquently on it
| dwell almost exclusively on its higher forms,
and in general, define humor as the sympa-
| thetlc presentation of incongruous elements
| IN human nature and life. Surely it is i'm
possible to deny high degree of humor
10 many so-called practical jokes, and
yet no sympathetic nature can enjoy
them. Much of the horse-play practiced in
onr colleges under the name of "haZing" is
distinctly humorous and at the same time IN
mlstakably cruel. Probably the reason why
| hlgh culture demands more complete har-
| mony with Its moral sympathies in humor
than IN wit is. that humor is in its
nature more prolix-that it has not the
| direct and irresistible force of wit. Wit is an
| electric shock which takes us by violence quite
| independently OF our predominant mental
QlSposllon; but humor approaches us more
| deliberately and leaves us masters of ourselves.
| Hence 1t is that while coarse and cruel hulnor
| has almost disappeared from modern litera-
| ture, coarse and cruel wit abounds; even re-
| fined men cannot help laughing at coarse
| bon mot, or a laeerating personality, if the
| shock OF the witticism is powerful one;
| while mere fun wills have no power over them
IL 1t jar on their moral taste. For this reason,
| TOO, II is that wit is perennial whereas humor
| quickly loses its zest.
More than is usual with definitions and
classlticatlons do the common distinctions be.
| tween wit and humor fail to represent the
actual fact. Like all other species, wit and
humor overlap and blend with each other.
There are bon mots, like many of Charles
Lambs. which are sort OF face tious hy brids-
one hardly knows whether TO call them witty
| or humorous. There arc sustained narratives
which, like Voltaire's N'Akakia" would be
more humorous if they were not so sparkling.
| SO antltheuc, so pregnant with suggestion and
satire that we are obliged to call them witty.
In Leigh Hunts illustrative Essay on Wit
and Humor" their manifestations are distrib
uted in fourteen different divisions, and the
| range in his examples is from the multiple
cation table to the Rig Veda Hazlitt
has written an essay upon the defini-
ton OF wit which is itself extremely
method of exclusion; and his naive ending is
that to define wit is less difficult than to de-
fine humor; for, like that, it is of infinite
variety. While wit deals with the relations of
ideas, humor has for its subject always char
acter, but not everything in character;
Its foibles generally, its caprices, little
weak Jealous
created Don Quixote, Sir Roger de Coverly,
| Psrson Adams and My Uncle Toby. The
| ity is increased, just in that measure is the
humor greater. 1t is the incongruity apparent
| between the proclivities to universal benev-
olence and to war in the character
! of Uncle Toby; to manliness and gullibility in
Parson Adams; to simplicity and common
| sense in Sir Roger; to wisdom and folly in Don
| Sancho Panza-which gives to these creations
| their peculiar power and charm. The fact that
a joke will not bear repetition serves as the
| clew to the fundamental condition upon which
| the feelings of wit and humor depend. The
| first consists in the discovery of occult rela-
| tfons between ideas the second in the appre-
| hension of incongruities; or the conjunction
| of objects and circumstances not usually con-
nected-but they both concur in this, that they
| must produce surprise.
| In point OF fact, it is rare to find wit
untpmnprpd
a spice of wit, and sometimes they are
united in the highest degree in the same
mind, as In Shakespeare and Cervantes and
Goethe. And what rare happy conjunc-
ton is this, for wit is apt to be cold and thin
Tipped and Mephistophelian in those who have
no relish for humor, whose lungs do never
| crow at fun and drollery; and broad-faced, roll
| licking humor needs the refining influence of
| wit. Indeed, it may be said that there is no
really fine writing in which wit has not an
implicit if not an explicit action. The wit
may never rise to the surface, it may never
flame out into w1tticism but it helps
to give brightness and transparency;
tions which verge on the ridiculous; in
every kind of writing it prevents sinking
into dullness. And 1t is eminently needed in
this Office in humorous writing, for, as humor
has no limits imposed on it by its ma
terial, no law but its own exuber-
ance, it is apt to become preposterous
is the enemy of all monotony, of all exag-
geration. But much as wit and humor
are admired by the world, wits and
humorists have not always received
adequately of its love or respect. The
humorist is apt to get more than moiety of
contempt and the wit of fear and hatred. Per-
haps this may be traced partly to the operation
OF that frame of thought known in the abstract
as Responsibility; the respectability of the
Philistine who contemplates wit and humor as
dangerous powers. 1t is true that they are
dangerous; but everything is dangerous
which is characterized by energy, or which
is eminent. in any degree. The cul-
fool is nearly as dangerous as great genius
nothing is safe but mediocrity. But, is
nearly always the case, popular opinion con-
tainS even here an adumbration of the truth
AS wit must needs have an object for its dis
play, It were well that its possessor be
also endowed with something of the
milk OF human kindness; with spark of that
catholic sympathy which shall prevent the ex-
ercise OF cruelty upon even his undeserving
fellow. The Intellectual bully is none the less
bully because we find his weapons admirabl
AS Jean Paul has said, 'Niemand dsrf der
Menschheit spotten, der nicht die Menschheit
lebt.'
The Chairman-Our Godmother Litera-
ture must be gratiied with the tributes
laid upon her altar tonight. We all are
grateful to those who have made this ami
versary memorable. For me my only re-
gret it is that now have to say that this
meeting is adjourned.
AT THE DINNER.
TIOCE UIO yONEn TILE rurnr