But we
may accept the opinion as an admission of the principle of complication.
The ideal and real often meet without any spark being struck, and in
some cases the conflict in humour can scarcely be said to lie between
them. It is often dependent upon a breach of association, or of some
primary ideas or laws of nature. Necessary principles of mind or matter
are often violated where things, true under one condition, are
represented as being so universally. Our American cousins supply us with
many illustrative instances. "A man is so tall that he has to go up a
ladder to shave himself." Generally we require to mount, to reach
anything in a very high position, but if it were our own head, however
lofty we carried it, we should not require a ladder. Somewhat similar is
the observation "that a young lady's head-dress is now so high, that she
requires to stand on a stool to put it on."
We have heard of a soldier surprising and surrounding a body of the
enemy; and of a man coming downstairs in the morning, thinking himself
someone else. "One man is as good as another," said Thackeray to the
Irishman. "No, but much better," was the sharp reply. A somewhat similar
breach takes place when something is spoken of under a metaphor, and
then expressions applicable to that thing are transferred to that to
which it is compared.
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