But these
are mere surface qualities, more or less common, though at lower power,
to all forms of humour. Nor is his international vogue as a humorist to
be attributed to any tricks of style, to any breadth of knowledge, or
even to any depth of intellectuality. His hold upon the world is due to
qualities, not of the head, but of the heart. I once heard Mr. Clemens
say that humour is the key to the hearts of men, for it springs from the
heart; and worthy of record is his dictum that there is far more of
feeling than of thought in genuine humour.
Mark Twain succeeded in "tickling the midriff of the English-speaking
races" with a single story; and in time he showed himself to be, not
only a man of letters, but also a man of action. His humour has been
defined as the sunny break of his serious purpose. Horace Walpole has
said that the world is a comedy to the man of thought, a tragedy to the
man of feeling. To the great humorist--to Mark Twain--the world was a
tragi-comedy.
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