The latter is rather based upon
some moral delinquency or imperfection; the former aims merely at
amusement, and resembles burlesque in being generally optical, and
containing little malice. Both come under the category of broad humour,
which is excessive in accessory emotion, and in most cases deficient in
complication. Caricature resembles them both in being often concerned
with deformity. It appeals to the senses rather than to the emotions.
The complication in it is never very good when it is confined to
pictorial representation, as we may observe that without some
explanation we should seldom know what a design was intended to portray;
and when the word means description in writing it still retains some of
its original reference to sight, and is concerned principally with form
and optical similitudes.
Although Wit and Humour are often used as synonymous, the fact of two
words being in use, and the attempts which have been made to
discriminate between them, prove that there must be a distinction in
signification.[25] It is so fine that many able writers have failed to
detect it. Lord Macaulay considered wit to refer to contrasts sought
for, humour to those before our eyes--but such an explanation is not
altogether satisfactory. Humour originally meant moisture, or any limpid
subtle fluid, and so came to signify the disposition or turn of the
mind--just as spirit, originally breath or wind, came to signify the
soul of man.
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