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acquire the charader of good humour, to ingratiate themfelves 

 with thofe whom it is their intereft to pleafe, or to difarm the 

 ridicule of others by anticipation. But ftill (which is all that is 

 neceffary to my argument) whether a man laughs at himfelf or 

 his neighbour, whether the fubjed of his ridicule are his own 

 part infirmities or the prefent infirmities of others, contempt is 

 the bafis of his mirth. 



i. 

 To illuftrate what has been faid by a few examples :— -Impo- 

 tence and decrepitude, confidered merely as fuch, do not excite 

 mirth, but compaflion ; yet fliould we find the impotent cripple 

 boafting of his agility, and attempting to mix in the dance ; or 

 fee age and deformity plaiftered over with lace, and affetiing 

 the gallant J this attempt at fome charader or atchievement, to 

 which the perfonage is lb notorioufly inadequate, impreffes us 

 with a ftrong fenfc of his inferiority, the emotion of contempt 

 is excited, and mirth is produced, unqualified by compaflion for 

 infirmities, of which the fufi:ercr himfelf feems fo little confcious. 

 An odd and grotefque countenance, a whimfical and outree con- 

 figuration of body, uncommon grimaces and diftortions of the 

 features and Hmbs, provided they are unattended with pain, may 

 excite laughter ; while the convulfions of pain, the deformity of 

 ficknefs or of forrow, afFed us only with terror and pity. The 

 abfurdity and incoherence of a drunken man excite laughter, for 

 they move contempt ; the ravings of a maniac fill us with melan- 

 choly and horror. Want and beggary do not of themfelves 

 excite mirth ; but fhould we fee a beggar with velvet, or lace, 

 or embroidery mixed among his rags, that incongruous union of 

 finery and wretchednefs would provoke our laughter. And thefe 



C K ) inftances 



