In some cases they have immortalized a name, in
others we know not who originated them, or to whom they first referred.
They seem to be the production, as they are the heritage, not of man but
of humanity. It is essential to the permanence of humour that it should
refer to large classes, and awaken emotions common to many. If Socrates
and Xantippe, the philosopher and the shrew, had not represented
classes, and an ordinary connection in life, we should have been little
amused at their differences.[16]
Having mentioned these few first aspects in which humour is constant, we
now come to the wider field of its variation. It may be said to vary
with the age, with the century, with classes of society, with the time
of life, nay, it has been asserted, with the very hours of the day! The
simplest mode in which we can demonstrate this character of humour is to
consider some of those things which although amusing to others are not
so to us, and those which amuse us, but not others; we sometimes regard
as ludicrous what is intended to be humorous, sometimes on the other
hand we view as humorous what is seriously meant, and sometimes we take
gravely what is intended to be amusing.
A man may make what he thinks to be a jest, and be neither humorous nor
ludicrous, and a man may cause others to laugh without being one or the
other; for what he says may be amusing, although he does not intend it
to be so, or he may be merely relating some actual occurrence.
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