The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-06-17
THE CULTIVA=|
TON OF WIT |
By PROF. WALTER B. HILL,
Chancellor University OF Georgia.
when in the lode to Maurice he wrote:
Not martyr flames nor trenchant swords
Can do away with that ancient lie:
"A gentler death shall falsehood die,

Shot through and through with cunning words.
That wit is not capable of cultivation is a notion universally
ut 1t may be that the pure spontanety Of wit belongs to the same
sort OF myth as the fine frenzy" of the poet.
1t is doubtless true that the wit, like the poet, like the orator,
is born, not made, and yet labor may play as great a part in the de-
velopment OF the one as of the other. Shendan's notebooks, when
examined by his literary executor, revealed the unsupported truth that
many of his brilliant wttcisms were the fruits of laborious cultiva-
ton. For instance, one OF his epigrams can be traced through the
successive stages OF its evolution. In its first form it appeared thus
He employs his fancy in his narrative and keeps his recollection for
his wit" At a later period it appeared thus: "When he makes his
jokes you applaud the accuracy of his memory, and it is only when
he states his facts that you admire his flights of magination." Sheri-
dan would not fire off the wnticism in either of these forms, because
they were not satisfactory to him. He reserved the final explosion
for the time when the epgram took this shape: "The right honor
able gentleman is indebted to his memory for his Jokes and to his
imagination for his facts"
Curran. who was the author Of more bon mots perhaps than airy
man that ever lived, even in Ireland, the land Of wit, told his friend
and biographer, Charles Phillips, that all the good things he ever
said were thought OF beforehand, and that he had laid awake many
a night chucking over his jokes as he invented them, and thrumping
the headboard of the bed in his glee, to the infinite annoyance OF the
other inmates of the house. Washington Irving tells us "the elab-
Grafton Of humor is often a most serious task; | have never witnessed
a more perfect picture OF mental misery than was presented to me
by a popular dramatic writer whom l found in the agonies of produc-
ing a farce which subsequently set the theaters in a roar"
The familiar fact that most OF us n able to manufacture a de-
sired whticisn when it is too late-as Mr.. Lowell said that all his
best after-dinner speeches were made in a cab as he rode home after
the banquet-suggests that cultivation might quicken the capacity for
wit. II the powers OF reasoning and of the imagination can be
trained through the study of logic and poetry, as everybody believes.
why may not the power Of wit,be likewise aided by study?
When you start in to do a thing, do it we'll. Half finished tasks
are the mllestones that mark the road to failure in every walk of life
The half finished task is one that might as we'll have never been
undertaken, even better had it never been undertaken, for it performs
no real good, and but stands as a monument to your shortcomings.
That regarding the theatar from an historical point of view it
Is. and has ALWAYS een a neceSSarv M eouep+1 =, bo,1+bf,1 $50,