tion is shown to the imagination, distorted or

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debased by being placed in an unfavourable Of the Ridilight; or associated with degrading ideas; from the influence of which, the air of ridicule, which it acquires, arises.

7. Humour consists in similar coincidences of things generally dissimilar, displayed in manners instead of images and ideas: as when the auctioneer considers himself as a public character in the state, and imagines that his profession requires the talents of a consummate orator and rhetorician or when a fishmonger, exalted to the rank of a major of militia, describes the moving of his regiment, from village to village, with all the pomp and pedantry of military diction, usually employed in describing the march of numerous armies from one kingdom to another. In all cases, this kind of mock heroic is among the most powerful sources of the ludicrous: as, by joining the forms of the most momentous of human affairs to the most trivial of human actions, it at once amuses the in agination with novelty and contrast, and flatters that innate principle of selfish vanity or malignity, which makes us naturally delight in the degradation of whatsoever is exalted.

s. Of the same kind are the burlesque imitations or parodies of serious compositions; which being the most easy of all the tricks, by

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which ridicule is produced, generally constitute the wit and humour of those, who have no other for as the whole art of this species of the ludicrous consists in employing, in a low sense, or upon a low subject, those modes of expression, which another person has employed seriously, or upon an exalted one, it requires neither invention, learning, nor ingenuity; but is always in the power of any person, who will condescend to employ it. The effect, too, is always certain: for when the expressions, appropriated to grand or elevated subjects, are transferred to those which are minute, humble, or familiar, the contrast will necessarily be ridiculous in proportion as it is strong and abrupt. The name of Boileau has preserved a parody, of this kind, of a celebrated scene in the Cid of Corneille; though it is a piece of wit, of which Boileau's valet-de-chambre was just as capable as his master. Ludicrous parodies of some passages in the odes of Pindar are also still extant, in a comedy of Aristophanes *; and probably many more were made by the lesser wits of that age: since no compositions were ever more open to such kind of ridicule; the change of a single word being, in many instances, sufficient to direct all his dithyrambic pomp of diction to some low or mean object; and consequently to make it ludicrous, in proFragm. Pindar. xiii. ed. Heyne.

portion to its inflation and magnificence. The ridiculous seems indeed to be always lying in wait on the extreme verge of the sublime and pathetic; and, as the chill of a single drop of cold water can condense into torpid dew an elastic mass of steam sufficient to give motion to the most powerful engine, so the damp of a single low word or incongruous circumstance is sufficient to sink into meanness and ridicule the most lofty imagery, or pathetic effusion, expressed otherwise in the most dignified and appropriate terms; and the higher the pitch, to which the strings of passion or enthusiasm are strained, the more sudden and complete will be their relaxation.

9. Upon the same principle, incongruities in dress, deportment, and dialect; such as dirt and finery, awkwardness and affectation, pomp and vulgarity, are ludicrous; and, above all, the heterogeneous confusion of accent and idiom, which a foreigner makes, when speaking a language, with which he is but imperfectly acquainted; a species of the ridiculous, which, howsoever low and contemptible it may appear to the polished courtier, or proud philosopher, has been a constant resource of comedy, from the time of Aristophanes, to the present day; Moliere being the only writer, distinguished for much vis comica, who has not condescended to employ it.

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10. The pleasure, which we receive from the imitations of a common mimic, who takes off, as it is called, the peculiarities of voice, gesture, manner, and expression of particular individuals, is of the same kind, and derived from the same principle: for, in the imitation, those peculiarities are always, in some degree, distorted and exaggerated; and, by being exhibited through organs and features, to which they do not naturally belong, they acquire a new character; which becomes ludicrous, in proportion as it becomes remote from the general style then in use in the polished ranks of society. There is scarcely any person, whose manner a good mimic will not make appear ludicrous; or whose features a good caricaturist will not make appear ridiculous; without, in either case, losing the general resemblance for there is scarcely any individual, who has not some peculiarity both in his manner and features; and by exaggerating this, and making it prominent, both the one and the other are enabled to give a vitiated and distorted; and, consequently, a ludicrous resemblance of him.

11. In all these cases, it is something of defect or deformity which pleases us; and consequently, how degrading soever it may be to own it, the passion flattered must be of the malignant kind. · Those persons, nevertheless,

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who are most prone to laughter, and most ready to enjoy every kind of social pleasantry of the Ridior ridicule, without reflecting at whose expence it is indulged, are commonly called good-natured; while those, on the contrary, who show no such disposition; but who chill with grave looks; or check with moral observations, the mirth, which a gay circle is deriving from a ludicrous display of the follies and foibles of a person, whom they, perhaps, all reverence and esteem, are as commonly styled morose, sour, ill-natured fellows. But in this case, we confound two qualities, which are extremely dif ferent, good-nature, and good-humour. Goodnature is that benevolent sensibility of mind, which disposes us to feel both the happiness and misery of others; and to endeavour to promote the one, and prevent or mitigate the other but, as this is often quite impossible; and as spectacles of misery are more frequent and obtrusive than those of bliss; the good-natured man often finds his imagination so haunted with unpleasant images; and his memory so loaded with dismal recollections; that his whole mind becomes tinged with melancholy; which frequently shows itself in unseasonable gravity, and even austerity of countenance and deportment; and in a gloomy roughness of behaviour; which is easily mistaken for the sour morosity of the worst spe

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