[ 8? ] 



Fourthly. A difparity between paffions and their objeds, 

 between means and their ends, which ftand forth in human life, 

 and excite contempt under the denomination and form of foibles 

 and abfurd opinions. It were endlefs to adduce examples of 

 thefe, they are multiform and various as the purfuits and adions 

 of man ; fufficc it to fay, that every paffion, when carried to 

 excefs, impreffes us with the idea of incongruity, and confe- 

 quently of relative imperfedion ; and fo does every palpable dif- 

 proportion between the end and the means, on which fide foever 

 the deficiency or inferiority falls, and will excite laughter by 

 contempt; provided, however, that there is nothing of ferious 

 afflidion to the agent himfelf, or ferious damage or danger to 

 other perfons, which may call forth emotions of a more vigorous 

 charader and a deeper hue. 



Were I to fearch for a portrait which at once combines in itfelf 

 and illuftrates all the different forms of the ridiculous above- 

 mentioned, I fhould inftance that of Don Quixote ; his words 

 and adions do not accord with his phyfical fituation, for with 

 his fingie arm he would rout armies and overthrow giants ; nor 

 with his civil and political exiflence, for he pretends to over- 

 throw empires, diftribute kingdoms, and confer titles and honours. 

 His drefs, his arms, his notions, his phrafeology, are not of the 

 country or age in which he lives ; his pafTions, love and honour, 

 for inflance, are in excefs, and their objeds mean and contemp- 

 tible ; the ends he propofes are extravagant, and the means he 

 employs are infufHcient ; all thefe form fuch a tifTue of incon- 

 gruity, unqualified by any tragical circumflance or incident, as 



is 



