to the industrious, preferve the portion of the helpless infant, and raise the head of the mourning father. People whose hearts are wholly bent towards pleasure, or intent upon gain, never hear of the noble occurrences among men of industry and humanity. It would look like a city romance, to tell them of the generous merchant, who the other day fent this billet to an eminent trader under difficulties to fupport himself, in whofe fall many hundreds befide s himself had perished; but because I think there is more fpirit and true gallantry in it, than in any letter I have ever read from Strephon to Phillis, 1 fhall infert it even in the mercantile honeft ftile in which it was fent. r SIR, I HAVE heard of the cafualties which have involved. you in extreme diftrefs at this time; and knowing મ you to be a man of great good-nature, industry and probity, have resolved to ftand by you. Be of good chear, the bearer brings with him five thousand pounds, and has my order to anfwer your drawing as much more on " my account. I did this in hafte, for fear I should come too late for your relief; but you may value yourself with me to the fum of fifty thousand pounds; for I can very chearfully run the hazard of being fo much less rich than I am now, to fave an honeft man whom I love. Your friend and fervant, W. P. I THINK there is fomewhere in Montaigne mention made of a family-book, wherein all the occurrences that happened from one generation of that houfe to another were recorded. Were there fuch a method in the families which were concerned in this generofity, it would be an hard talk for the greatest in Europe to give, in their own, an instance of a benefit better placed, or conferred with a more graceful air. It has been heretofore urged, how barbarous and inhumane is any unjust step made to the disadvantage of a trader; and by how much fuch an act towards him is deteftable, by fo much an act of kindnefs towards him is laudable. I remember to have heard a bencher of the Temple tell a ftory of a tradition in their houfe, where they had formerly a cuftom of chufing kings VOL. III B b for fuch a feason, and allowing him his expences at the charge of the fociety: one of our kings, faid my friend, carried his royal inclination a little too far, and there was a committee ordered to look into the management of his treafury. Among other things it appeared, that his Majefty walking incig. in the cloifter, had overheard a poor man fay to another, fuch a small fum would make me the happiest man in the world. The king out of his royal compaffion privately inquired into his character, and finding him a proper object of charity, fent him the money. When the committee read the report, the house paffed his accounts with a plaudite without farther examination, upon recital of this article in them, T For making a man happy N° 249. Saturday, December 15. Τέλως άκαιρος ἐν βροτοῖς δεινὸν κακόν. W HENI make thoice of a fubject that has not been treated of by others, I throw together my reflections on it without any order or method, so that they may appear rather in the loofenefs and freedom of an effay, than in the regularity of a fet difcourfe. It is after this manner, that I fhall confider laughter and ridicule in my prefent paper. MAN is the merrieft fpecies of the creation; all above and below him are ferious. He fees things in a different light from other beings, and finds his mirth arifing from objects that, perhaps, caufe fomething like pity or difpleafure in higher natures. Laughter is indeed a very good counterpoife to the spleen; and it feems but reasonable, that we should be capable of receiving joy from what is no real good to us, fince we can receive grief from what is no real evil. I HAVE, in my forty-feventh paper, raised a fpeculation on the notion of a modern philofopher, who defcribes the first motive of laughter to be a fecret comparison which we make between ourselves, and the perfons we laugh at; or, in other words, that fatisfaction which we receive from the opinion of fome pre-eminence in ourselves, when we fee the abfurdities of another, or when we reflect on any paft abfurdities of our own. This feems to hold in molt cafes, and we may obferve that the vaineft part of mankind are the most addicted to this paffion. I HAVE read a fermon of a conventual in the church of Rome on those words of the wife man, I faid of laughter, it is mad; and of mirth, what does it upon which he laid it down as a point of doctrine, that laughter was the effect of original fin, and that Adam could not laugh before the falls. LAUGHTER, while it lafts, flackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and diffolution in all the powers of the foul: and thus far it may be looked upon as a weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we confider the frequent reliefs we receive from it, and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to deprefs the mind and damp our fpirits, with tranfient unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wife for fo great a pleasure of life. THE talent of turning men into ridicule, and expofing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers. A young man with this caft of mind cuts himself off from all manner of improvement. Every one has his flaws and weaknesses; nay, the greatest blemishes are often found in the moft fhining characters; but what an abfurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities? to obferve his imperfections more than his virtues? and to make ufe of him for the fport of others, rather than for our own improvement? / We therefore very often find, that persons the most accomplished in ridicule are those who are very fhrewd at hitting a blot, without exerting any thing mafterly in themfelves. As there are many eminent critics who never writ a good line, there are many admirable buffoons that animadvert upon every fingle defect in another, without ever difcovering the leaft beauty of their own. By this means, thefe unlucky little wits often gain reputation in the esteem Bb 2 of of vulgar minds, and raife themfelves above perfons of much more laudable characters. IF the talent of ridicule were employed to laugh men out of vice and folly, it might be of fome ufe to the world; but, instead of this, we find that it is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good fenfe, by attacking every thing that is folemn and ferious, decent and praises worthy in human life. WE may obferve, that in the firft ages of the world, when the great fouls and mafter-pieces of human nature were produced, men fliined by a noble fimplicity of behaviour, and were ftrangers to thofe little embellishments. which are fo fashionable in our prefent converfation. And it is very remarkable, that, notwithstanding we fall short at prefent of the ancients in poetry, painting, oratory, history, architecture, and all the noble arts and sciences which de pend more upon genius than experience, we exceed thein as much in doggerel, humour, burlefque, and all the trivial arts of ridicule. We meet with more rallery among the moderns, but more good fenfe among the ancients. THE two great branches of ridicule in writing are comedy and burlefque. The first ridicules perfons by draw. ing them in their proper characters, the other by drawing them quite unlike themselves. Burlefque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean perfons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other describes great perfons acting and speaking like the bafeft among the people. Don Quixote is an inftance of the firft, and Lucian's gods of the fecond. It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlefque poetry runs beft in heroic verfe, like that of the Dif penfary; or in doggerel like that of Hudibras. I think where the low character is to be raised, the heroic is the proper meafure; but when an hero is to be pulled down and degraded, it is done beft in doggerel. IF Hudibras had been fet out with as much wit and humour in heroic verfe as he is in doggerel, he would have made a much more agreeable figure than he does; though the generality of his readers are fo wonderfully pleased with the double rhimes, that I do not expect many will be of my opinion in this particular. I SHALL conclude this effay upon laughter with obferving, that the metaphor of laughing, applied to fields and meadows meadows when they are in flower, or to trees when they are in bloffom, runs through all languages; which I have not obferved of any other metaphor, excepting that of fire and burning when they are applied to love. This fhews that we naturally regard laughter, as what is in itself both amiable and beautiful. For this reafon likewife Venus has gained the title of ouens, the laughter-loving dame, as Waller has tranflated it, and is reprefented by Horace as the goddess who delights in laughter. Milton, in a joy. ous affembly of imaginary perfons, has given us a very poetical figure of laughter. His whole band of mirth is fo fimely defcribed, that I fhall fet down the paffage at length. But come thou goddess, fair and free, Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, - Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple fleek:: Sport that wrinkled care derides, And in thy right-hand lead with thee C |