[ 8o ] 



nal things, laughter feems to be its uniform, indeed its only 

 expreffion of pleafure or delight, from whatever caufe. That 

 pleafure muft be merely animal, and if we confider the dulnefs 

 and imperfedion of the child's perceptions, we may well fuppofe 

 it to be of a very faint and fubordinate kind, perhaps produced 

 by fome external caufe, that mildly irritates, and flimulates his 

 nerves. 



I PROCEED now to trace out the fources of the ridiculous; 

 and I think all its objeds, various as they feem to be at firft 

 glance, may be found in one or other of the following claffes : 



First. Thofe anions and geftures of the brute creation, 

 which imitate the adions and geftures of man. Here the re- 

 femblance leads to a comparifon with ourfelves, the comparifon 

 produces a fenfe of comparative fuperiority, that fenfe of fupe- 

 riority a triumph, and that triumph is expreffed by laughter. 

 Thefe imperfcd and grotefque imitations, by the brute creation, 

 are a fort of pradical caricatures of human adions ; or, as 

 Mr. Addifon very juftly exprtffes it, the adions of beafts, which 

 move our laughter, bear a refemblance to a human blunder. 

 This fource of the ridiculous is but fcanty, and the pleafure 

 derived from it of a fubordinate degree. The inferior creatures 

 that imitate man are not numerous ; and the human adions, which 

 they are competent to mimic, are but few. The refemblance is 

 generally remote, often rather fanciful than real ; and, as the 

 diftance is fo wide, and the inferiority fo palpable, the comparative 

 triumph, and the pleafure refulting from it, will be propor- 

 tionably fraall. 



Seconclt. 



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