The
natives of Tahiti in their soft southern isle are gay and
laughter-loving; the Arab of the desert is fierce and warlike, and
seldom condescends to smile. Sydney Smith said "it would require a
surgical operation to get a joke into the understanding of a Scotchman;"
but the Irishman in his mild variable climate is ready to be witty under
all circumstances. Floegel, writing in Germany, observes that "humour is
not a fruit to be gathered from every bough; you can find a hundred men
able to draw tears for every one that can raise a laugh."
There is also a great difference between individuals in this respect.
Some are naturally bright and jocund, and others are misanthropic and
manufacture out of very trite materials a sort of snap-dragon wit, which
flares up in an instant, is as soon out, and generally burns somebody's
fingers. It may be urged on the contrary that many celebrated wits as
Mathews, Leech, and others, have been melancholy men. But despondency is
often found in an excitable temperament which is not unfavourable to
humour, for the man who is unduly depressed at one moment is likely to
be immoderately elated at another. Old Hobbes was of opinion that
laughter arose from pride, upon which Addison remarked that according to
that theory, if we heard a man laugh, instead of saying that he was very
merry, we should say that he was very proud.
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