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F59

A THEORY
OF
38684
WIT AND HUMOUR
BY
FR FLEET
London
REMINGTON AND CO PUBLISHERS
HENRIETTA STREET COVENT GARDEN
1890
[All Rights Reserved]
•
817
F59
A THEORY OF
WIT AND HUMOUR
да
817
F5.9
.
PREFACE.
In producing this work, a few remarks may be made
by the author in indication of certain prominent features
in which it differs from previous works written by him in
the endeavour to analyse wit and humour, the first of
which was produced some eight years ago, in a book
entitled "An Essay on Wit and Humour, with other
Articles." These have been four in number, of which
the first three can be said to have no more than a
tentative aspect, and need no further mention. The book
immediately preceding the present one, and entitled “ An
Analysis of Wit and Humour," was published in 1888,
and, although subsequent revision has revealed not a few
inaccuracies in it, the analysis is, the author thinks,
substantially correct. At the same time it must be
admitted that from some obscurity which in places
characterised the book, partly perhaps from difficulty
of the subject, but to some extent doubtless from
avoidable obscurity of style, the book as a whole certainly
lacked attractiveness for the reader.
The book, however, consists, as far as scientific analysis
is concerned, exclusively of a theory of risible phases;
the other branch of the subject, viz., ingenuity, having
merely been treated briefly and generally in a few pages,
in ignorance of the circumstance that this, too, admitted
of reduction to a science. And thus, although the author
is so far of his former opinion as to consider that the
publication of 1888 presents the primary substance of a
theory of wit and humour, the present work, giving as it
does, in Chapters V. and VI., a separate science of
ingenuity, is an entirely new production as regards one of
the two main divisions of the book; while the other
division-the science of risible phases-is a presentation
of virtually the whole of the previous book in a largely
revised and amended form; though, at the same time, as
before stated, the whole essential character of the theory
of risible phases remains unaltered.

1
ì
CHAP.
I. Introductory
CONTENTS.
...
...
II. Synopsis of Book; Definition of Risible
Matter; &c.
III. Classification of Risible Phases …….
PAGE.
1
6
18
IV. Moral Perfection (Degrees of): Injustices 23
V. On Ingenuity in General, and "Circum-
stantial Novelty "
VI. In Three Parts. Illustration of Phases
of Circumstantial Novelty, No. 2
35
59
VII. Illustration of Phases of Circumstantial
Novelty, No. 1
162
VIII. General Illustration of Risible Phases:
Class I.
179
...
IX. General Illustration of Risible Phases:
Class II.
206
X. General Illustration of Risible Phases:
Class III.
238
XI. Satire, Irony, and Sarcasm
249
XII. Miscellaneous
262
:
...
:
•
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
THE precise nature of wit and humour, or of one
or other of the two qualities by itself, is a subject
towards the apprehension of which it may be said
no step has yet been made, though it has occupied
the attention of inquirers from time to time,
chiefly of late years in the more complete sense
of a consideration of the two qualities in connec-
tion with-or contradistinction from-each other.
Clearly as we may distinguish in their individual
aspect most forms of wit and humour, there has
been a seemingly insurmountable difficulty in
obtaining a starting-point for the construction of
a science. There are some who consider the
matter hopeless of elucidation, and the average
individual, gaily announcing his intention of
entering upon the inquiry, is met with a chorus
B
2
INTRODUCTORY.
of voices, wrathful, pitying, derisive, or con-
temptuous, in dissuasion of his venture.
The best known definition of wit, perhaps, is
Locke's :-" It lies most in the assemblage of
ideas, and putting these together with quickness
and variety, wherein can be found any resem-
blance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant
pictures and agreeable visions to the fancy." Of
this, Addison says, "Every resemblance of ideas
is not that which we call wit, unless it be such
that gives delight and surprise to the reader.
These two properties seem essential to wit, more
particularly the last of them. In order, therefore,
that the resemblance of ideas be wit, it is necessary
that the ideas should not lie too near to one
another in the nature of things, for where the
likeness is obvious it gives no surprise."
It is not clear whether Locke used the word
wit in the sense in which we do, and in which
Addison evidently understood it, viz., as a quality
which in many of its forms produces risibility,
some persons, indeed, holding risibility to be a
sine quâ non of wit, Addison being one of these
if we accept surprise as a risible phase. Locke
may have confined the term wit to those very ideas
to which Addison denies the name, viz., metaphors
and non-risible similes, and would then have
given some such designation as jocularity or
jesting to the risible ingenuities, such as puns,
INTRODUCTORY.
3
verbal quibbles, and exaggerated similes. Certainly
the words "pleasant pictures and agreeable visions
to the fancy" seem to point to an exclusion of
anything risible; while Addison's condition of
wit, that the ideas should not lie too near to each
other in the nature of things, points to the
exclusion of everything which is non-risible, thus
making his words a total destruction of Locke's
definition instead of an amendment of it. The
theory presented in this book analyses the several
forms of wit in whatever sense the word be used,
but in anticipation of the explanations furnished
in my theory, I may here mention an ambiguity
in one of Locke's words, the non-recognition of
which would necessarily be a fundamental source
of confusion, and explains how Addison's defini-
tion, apparently more or less in accordance with
Locke's, is really a total destruction of it. It is
this, that the word "congruity," apparently used
by Locke in the sense of perfect propriety of
connection between the witty idea and its
associated phase, has, in its application to
ingenious ideas, that meaning, but another as
well, viz., a sensible, i.e., an intelligible, connec-
tion with the concomitant phase, but at the same
time a connection wanting in perfect propriety,
which feature it is that produces the surprise
required by Addison. Hence Addison contem-
plating only ideas which are congruous in a
4
INTRODUCTORY.
partial sense, and Locke only those which are
congruous in every way, the two definitions are
exclusive of each other.
Of inquiries into the nature of humour, I know
of none before the present century. Previous to
then, more especially, we may say, in the times of
Dryden and Pope, humour was used less as a
subject for philosophical speculation than as a
weapon of literary warfare. A rough estimate of
its general value for offensive purposes, anxiety as
to whether by a well-directed cast some individual
item of humour would stick; in these directions.
would lie the main connection with humour of not
a few writers of those days. Haylitt and Sydney
Smith have treated wit and humour very much
after one fashion. Each has discussed a great
variety of amusing incidents, but has drawn no
line of demarcation between the two qualities.
George Eliot has given a general description of
them, but not a strict definition. Coleridge, in
bis Literary Remains; gives a definition of humour
of a certain originality, but it is of a decidedly
exclusive character, and he does not very clearly
show its application to the concrete instances he
quotes. Mr. H. D. Traill, in the Fortnightly
Review for September, 1882, defines humour, as no
doubt not a few other persons might, as incon-
gruity, though it might be observed that under
this definition there can be no humour but what is
INTRODUCTORY.
5
composed of two phases. The Rev. H. R. Haweis,
taking a metaphor from meteorology, calls
humour the electric atmosphere and wit the flash.
Thackeray has described humour as love and wit,
and a not very dissimilar conclusion is that which
makes the element of pathos an indispensable
condition.
CHAPTER II.
SYNOPSIS OF BOOK, AND DEFINITION OF RISIBLE
MATTER.
IN describing this book as a work on wit and
humour, I have employed the words in the com-
mon acceptation and in their most comprehensive
sense; using the term wit to describe all those
ideas to which the word may with any propriety
be applied, including what is known as bad and
indifferent wit, and humour as applying to all
risible ideas whatsoever, some of which would be
universally accepted as humour, some whose title
to the name, while more or less valid, is less
unquestioned, while the remainder usually pass
by such names as ludicrousness, incongruity,
grotesqueness, buffoonery. Further, my theory,
as will be seen, presents a certain extension of
the province of the risible as ordinarily under-
stood.
The title of the book, however-though the
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION, &c.
7
matter is merely one of nomenclature-is, as
regards wit, by no means closely indicative of the
theory presented, the ingenuity usually recognized
as wit not always being given that name under
my theory, while on the other hand wit is claimed
for acts of perception which are not commonly
regarded as wit; the apprehension, for instance,
of a pun, by the joker's audience.
The following is a short synopsis of the main
characteristics of my analysis. In the first place,
the preliminary remark is to be made that dis-
tinction is observed between incidents which are
compound and those which consist of single
phases. Then, as to the more characteristic
features of the book, a definition and classifica-
tion is made of risible phases, generally described
by the term imperfection * (not being moral
deficiency) in actual or fictitious personalities,
and specific illustration given in Chapters VIII.,
IX., and X. In the next place an explanation
is presented (see Chapter V.) of the nature of
ingenuity in general (so far as a theory of wit
and humour would be concerned with ingenuity),
which I divide into three species; ingenuity of
the first species being shown in such ideas as
metaphors, similes (within the limits of sub-
* It is this imperfection in one form or another which fur-
nishes the risible element in any incident, presenting ingenuity,
which excites laughter or the smile of risibility as well as admira-
tion.
8
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION
stantially rational comparison), practical jokes,
those expedients in more or less difficult situa-
tions which we call mother wit, and a certain
proportion of ideas of a description special
to my theory (viz., a proportion of what I call
"events of the occasion "); ingenuity of the
second species-conscious invention as I other-
wise call it-comprising all witting invention
of risible phases for exhibition in one's self or
fictitious ascription to others, and not having a
quality which I call circumstantial novelty of the
second description; and ingenuity of the third
species being the witting invention of phases,
risible or non-risible, possessing this quality of
circumstantial novelty No. 2. What I call wit is
a sub-species of the third species of ingenuity, and
is a term applied to the discovery of those phases
of circumstantial novelty No. 2 which have, to use
the terminology of, my theory, a "special connec-
tion" with the "events of the occasion;" by
reason of being-to use again my own phraseology
"definitel ypresented" by these "events."
Circumstantial novelty No. 1 is explained and
illustrated in detail in Chapter VII.
""
I may add that an exhibition of moral inferiority
is the reverse of what I define as a risible phase,
implying, as it does, unless and until punishment
is given, some gain to the exhibitor, and a pro-
portionate loss to another or others.
OF RISIBLE MATTER, &c.
9
As being, however, procedure which the ex-
hibitor does not as a rule like to be made pro-
minent, it stands on the same footing with a
risible phase, so far as regards its being matter
for notice (with the introduction of some element
of risibility) by another.
In the arrangement of chapters I have not
followed the strictly logical order throughout, but
that which most quickly shows the entire thecry
in its essential features. Thus, having given in
Chapter III. a general idea of the nature of
risible phases, I postpone detailed illustration of
these till I have presented the other main branch
of my theory, viz., that relating to the three
species of ingenuity, and circumstantial novelty
No. 2.
For convenience of reference, the several inci-
dents given as illustrations are numbered in a
progressive series for each chapter containing
illustrations. There are, however, a few forms of
imperfection which scarcely require specific inci-
dents, but merely general illustrations to explain
them, and these I have left unnumbered.
I would here observe, less for the guidance of
the responsible critic than for that of the general
reader, that while in some few of my illustrations
there are matters which demand some slight or
extra tax upon the attention, there is, I think,
even without these, a body and variety of illustra-
.
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION
10
tion sufficient for an apprehension of the precise
nature of the theory, and estimate of its correct-
ness, although my illustrations in Chapter VI.
certainly fall short in one or two places of
what might properly be given. These special
demands upon the attention may be due in
one or two places not only to intricacy in the
subject itself, but to more or less obscurity-
it may be dubiousness-in my treatment of it;
there being in one instance-my postulate of the
quality of moral dignity—what is possibly no
other than an arbitrary assumption, though this
is not an error-if an error it be which
would cause any confusion in the general theory.
I do not know that there are, apart from this
lastly-mentioned question, any substantial short-
comings in the three chapters illustrating risible
phases in detail, though if there are, that branch
of the theory is not one whose characteristic
aspect would be affected by occasional details of
individual sections. And a claim to general
correctness may, I hope, be made for Chapter VI.
To mark off, then, what may be considered the
less readable portions of the book, including under
this designation not only what is in any way
intricate or obscure, but matter which is unin-
teresting merely, if it is only of minor importance
in the theory,-the reader, if so disposed, could
omit anything more than a casual inspection of
OF RISIBLE MATTER, &c.
11
the whole of Chapter IV., after the first page or
so; all the remarks in Chapter V. on Evidence of
Ingenuity, except the paragraph and passage
following it wherein is pointed out and emphasized
a distinction between a phase of circumstantial
novelty in a joke and the profession of belief in
its accordance with common sense which is often
made; anything in Chapter VI. beyond what will
show the general plan, though I scarcely think any
appreciable difficulty will be found there; and
in the chapters illustrating risible phases, the
whole of Sect. I., Chapter VIII., except the first
two pages; the latter half of Sect. VI., Chapter
VIII.; and the classification forming the latter
portion of the discussion of errors of judgment,
Sect. I., Chapter IX.
To state now my definition of risible phases:
These are those phases of imperfection in beings
possessing in reality or in the imagination the
capacities for pleasure and pain, which are notice-
able-attract the attention of the observer-
from their being either only occasional conditions
with anyone, or not common to a generality of
persons. They are grouped under three general
phases, viz. (1) really or apparently involuntary
retrogression in respect of welfare by means of
loss or pain; * (2) experience of obstruction of
* The punishments inflicted by law do not come within this
category, implying, as they do, previous unlawful gain, and thus
effecting not retrogression, but the status quo ante.
12
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION
legitimate progress; and (3) inferiority to certain.
standards of perfection (not being in respect of
morality, inferiority in which direction is the
reverse of risible), which standards will be duly
particularized. And I would here mention that
where the word imperfection is used without
prefix, it will signify risible imperfection, and
likewise the word inferiority without prefix will
signify one of the forms of the third phase of
risible imperfection. Where imperfection or
inferiority in respect of morality is to be referred
to, the prefix of moral will be given.
I use the word perfection, as applied to indi-
viduals, as synonymous, except as regards moral
perfection, which I shall speak of hereafter-in
Chapter IV.-with the utmost condition of pleasure
to the individual; the degree of imperfection
indicated in any phase exhibited being in pro-
portion to the distance it places the individual
from a condition of the utmost pleasure, the
phases of pain representing, according to the
degree of the pain, extension of such distance
beyond the point of a neutral state as regards
emotion, thus representing imperfection in degree
according to the distance. To a condition of
pleasure there is needed not only the possession of
property with the potentiality of giving pleasure,
but the capacity to enjoy it; and likewise to a
OF RISIBLE MATTER, &c.
13
condition of pain is needed possession of property
with the potentiality of giving pain, and the
capacity to receive pain from it. A person's own
abilities or endowments are property only capable
in the main of giving him pleasure indirectly, by
exchange for the productions of nature and of his
fellows. But although abilities or endowments
-calculated to procure pleasure from nature or man
in exchange for their exercise or exhibition need,
in order to produce a condition of pleasure, the
complement of the property for which they are to
be exchanged, they are equivalent to an indication
of such condition, since in the ordinary course of
events the complemental property follows, the
recognition of which circumstance by the observer
gives the abilities or endowments all the appear-
ance of indicating the condition of pleasure.
These remarks would be applicable to the lower
animals to a substantial degree. Of course, with
wild animals the exchange for the exercise of
their abilities would be mainly with nature, while
the return received from man by domesticated
animals for their services or value as food would
depend on their owners. To inanimate objects
endowed in imagination with life and voluntary
action, and to ideal personages such as fairies,
elves, and goblins, the remarks would also be
substantially applicable.
It is true the witting production of a risible
14
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION
phase of appreciable value to the intellectual sense
implies excellence (the reverse of risible imperfec-
tion), whether the risible phase be exhibited in
the inventor's own person or fictitiously ascribed
to another person, real or imaginary. But this
excellence is in another department of procedure
than that of the risible phase, the department,
namely, of invention of phases thus pleasing the
intellectual sense on account of their novelty. In
the particular line or direction of procedure to
which the risible phase pertains, the imperfection
remains in exhibition, though of course where an
imperfection is recognized as wittingly exhibited
it is not attended by the incidental disadvantages
which would follow an unavoidable exhibition of
imperfection, such, for instance, as the termina-
tion of association with a person which might
result from a serious exhibition by the latter of
inferior mental or physical abilities.
It is, of course, to incorrect or absurd opinions
thus expressed with risibility as the sole object or
one of the objects in view, that the word
"ostensible," so familiar an expression in con-
nection with risibility, is applied.
Of course, with many of what I have called
risible imperfections, the presence of sympathy in
the observer, or, failing this, the sense that it is
called for, would preclude laughter or the smile of
risibility. I have defined the imperfections as
OF RISIBLE MATTER, &c.
15
risible on the strength of the assumption of their
potentiality of exciting in the observer a moral—
and egoistic-emotion of pleasure at the alteration
of relative status between the parties caused by the
imperfection, which potentiality, however, would
be outweighed in many cases by the above emotion
of sympathy or the sense that it is demanded by
the occasion. Whether I am right in assuming in
all these imperfections the above potentiality or
effect, and their risibility on that account, is open
to question, but if, as I hope, I have in my analysis
more or less correctly indicated the source of the
whole substantial interest we take in, and have
properly classified, such phases as are admittedly
risible, at least all practical purposes will have
been served, and my theory be virtually indepen-
dent of this other question.
The source of the pleasure taken in admittedly
risible phases, or at least in such as are forcible
enough to excite laughter in anyone, would seem
from the well-known definition of laughter by
Hobbes, to be considered by him as being entirely
a moral emotion. Laughter, he says, "is a sudden
glory arising from some sudden conception of
some eminency in ourselves by comparison with
the inferiority of others, or with our own formerly.
But it would seem clear that the pleasure expressed
by laughter is with persons of experience and
discrimination only to a very small extent due to
•

16
SYNOPSIS; DEFINITION
a moral emotion at alteration of relative status
between the observed and observer, and is mainly
an intellectual pleasure. And probably even with
the uncultured and inexperienced the pleasure is
more intellectual than moral.
Why our pleasure in certain ideas is expressed
in the particular outward form of laughter, or the
smile of risibility, is of course purely a matter
for speculation. Possibly, it seems to me, this
mode of expression may be due to a tendency of
the mind instinctively to look for progress or
absence of retrogression in one's self and others,
whereby the reverse of these, as are risible imper-
fections, may cause a retrograde process in the
mind of the observer, the conflict of which process.
with the opposite tendency natural to the mind
may be what gives the expression of pleasure
the particular form of laughter or the smile of
risibility.
The degrees of novelty in risible phases vary
indefinitely, from those too slight to make a risible
phase worth producing intentionally-that is,
solely for its value to the intellectual sense of the
observer to those of very considerable value to
the intellectual sense. And the novelty appears
to me to be of two descriptions, the first being
intrinsic-a novelty possessed by risible phases at
all times, pertaining as it does to the phase in
itself; and the second, circumstantial, or extrinsic
of RISIBLE MATTER, &c.
17
-a novelty possessed by risible phases on occasion,
according to the circumstances under which they
are presented. Risible phases having no circum-
stantial novelty seldom have much value for
persons of discrimination, though presentation or
representation of such of them as admit of it, in
metre or rhythmical form, will give these an
adventitious value. The risible phases possessing
circumstantial novelty, as will be shown hereafter,
may have any degree of value, according to the
occasion. In many cases a risible phase, whether
with or without circumstantial novelty, though
oftenest without, will be only a part of an incident,
and sometimes a merely secondary feature.
Where one's sympathy is excited to any material
extent by an imperfection, or-sympathy being
absent-the case is recognized as one calling for
sympathy, the effect the imperfection would other-
wise have would be modified, and at times, as in
the commoner forms of retrogression and obstruc-
tion, be destroyed. But where the disadvantage
resulting from the imperfection is inappreciable,
as, for instance, a loss of a few seconds' time, or
a slip of the tongue, and with most imperfections
occurring in fiction only, there is, of course,
propriety in its reception by laughter or a smile.
C
CHAPTER III.
CLASSIFICATION OF RISIBLE PHASES, WITH
INCIDENTAL REMARKS.
THE forms in which imperfection in the foregoing
three phases—really or apparently involuntary
retrogression in respect of welfare, obstruction,
and inferiority (not being moral)—is shown, I
should divide into three classes. The first class-
composed mainly of imperfection in the form of
retrogression and obstruction-relates for the
most part to property other than the mental and
physical possessions of the individual, and has the
following sections :-I. Diminution, depreciation
in value, or total loss, of valuable property owned,
without compensation or return in kind, or in the
shape of thanks, or of a feeling of having per-
formed a duty by the proceeding; evidence of
absence of esteem commonly supposed to be
accorded to the particular individual; or evidence
of the possession of an expectation or of a pros-

CLASSIFICATIOn of risible phases. 19
pect of diminution, depreciation, or loss, of valu-
able property. II. Possession of property giving
pain, or evidence of expectation or of prospect of
this, also without compensation in some form.
III. Experience of obstruction of legitimate pro-
gress. IV. Evidence of absence of ownership of
some special property or benefits common to the
generality, or evidence of ownership of property
of that description, of less extent or of less value
than that owned by the generality. V. A less
favourable situation than that of the generality
in respect of environment or external conditions.
VI. Loss of dignity. VII. Appropriation of
articles of utility to other than their commonly
intended purposes.
The second class (imperfection in the form of
inferiority) relates more especially to the personal
character, and has the following sections :—
I. Exhibition in transient or in permanent form,
that is, by transient or permanent productions, of
capabilities, acquirements, or endowments, of an
inferior degree; exhibition of the absence of
capabilities, acquirements, or endowments, in
some direction; and exhibition of absence of any
capacity for enjoyment common to the generality.
II. Various divergences from conditions familiar
to the observer; and various alterations in the
existing order of things generally, that is to say,
various innovations. III. Inferiority in special
•
20
CLASSIFICATION
walks of life to the generality engaged in those
directions. IV. Inferiority attributed in idea to
the Deity; and also to Nature, regarded as a
personality. V. Inferiority in inanimate objects.
The third class is that of incongruous juxta-
position, which is also a form of inferiority.
Not only the individual, but all aggregat
bodies having common interests may exhibit im-
perfection, as seen in public obstruction, and
deprivation by destruction of public property.

As regards the standard, that is, the superior
measure of perfection, to which an inferiority is
referable by the observer;-with a large propor-
tion of imperfections the standard is the intel-
lectual condition of the generality, irrespective of
class or community (that is, the intellectual con-
dition of the generality in respect of its natural,
not acquired, capabilities), or its physical condi-
tion. In other cases the inferiority is referable
to the measure of culture or education possessed
by particular grades of society. In others to the
particular customs, manners, or costumes, of
nations. In other cases, inferiority, while not
referable to a standard of procedure possessed by
the generality, is referable to a standard appre-
hended by it; the proceeding relating to a special
art or profession in which the generality are not
engaged (it being understood that the matter is
OF RISIBLE PHASES.
21
not one of technical import, but one of which the
unprofessional individual is able to judge in virtue
of the possession of ordinary common sense).
The standards to which inferiority attributed
in imagination to the Deity and Nature, and to
inanimate objects, are referable, will be mentioned
as occasion arrives for illustrating these forms of
inferiority.
There are two further descriptions of imperfec-
tion, in the shape of inferior mental capabilities
(Sect. I., Class II.) which are not intrinsic in-
feriorities, referable to the standard of a generality.
The first, which I call an adventitious inferiority,
is shown in error of judgment of every kind (in
addition to any intrinsic inferiority such error
may happen to show) the inferiority-of a fixed
and mechanical character-being in reference
to everyone in possession, whether by his own
acumen or by knowledge otherwise acquired, of
the data necessary to have avoided the error. The
second (a quite unimportant feature, as being but
a small matter of detail) I call an incidental in-
feriority, and is shown by any person who puts
forward with an intention (real, or ostensible only,
according as we may think) to deceive, a state-
ment discredited really or professedly by the
recipient.
As above implied, a judgment, whether or not
events show it to be erroneous, may indicate
22 CLASSIFICATION OF RISIBLE PHASES.
intrinsic inferiority in the matter of reasoning
power, or not, according to its character. Again,
when error of judgment entails loss of any kind
(beyond the unrecompensed loss of time spent in
forming the judgment, which would only be a
risible imperfection if the judgment showed in-
trinsic inferiority) there is in such loss imperfec-
tion in a further direction shown.
•

Humour in fiction may of course be either true
to nature, that is, similar in character to occur-
rences of real life, or not.) In the latter cases
alike with the former, the imperfection is referable
to the standard existing in real life in the phase
to which the procedure relates.

CHAPTER IV.
ON MORAL PERFECTION, AND INJUSTICE FROM THE
MORAL POINT OF VIEW.
In this chapter I state the relation to my thesis
of degrees of moral perfection above and below
the average, and treat more especially from the
moral as distinguished from the risible point of
view, so far as is necessary to my thesis, of
injustice committed for the sake of jocularity or
otherwise. Injustices, except where they are
accidental and, further, indicate no culpable
negligence, of course imply moral inferiority, real
or formal, in the offender, while without exception
they involve risible imperfection in the offended
party, in the shape either of retrogression or
experience of obstruction of legitimate progress.
Before proceeding to these matters I may make
a general observation respecting risible imperfec-
tions presenting an appreciable moral aspect,
whether caused by injustice or not, viz., that the
24 MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES.
predominance of the moral over the risible aspect,
or vice versâ, would depend upon various circum-
stances, such as the probability of an injustice
being intended to injure, the respective forces of
the two aspects-moral and risible-of the case,
the question whether the incident was fictitious
or of actual occurrence, and the presence
absence of sympathy in the observer.
or
Moral excellence differs from the corresponding
degree of perfection in respect of personal welfare
in that the former is in proportion, or in some-
what close proportion, to the sacrifice made of
intellectual, æsthetic, or physical pleasures. With
the question as to the precise extent to which
there are compensations for these sacrifices in the
shape of pleasure in doing good, and with the
question of future recompense, my thesis is not
concerned. But it is obvious that there is not
seldom only a partial recompense visibly accruing
for these sacrifices, and on such occasions the
sacrifice would be identical in character with
risible imperfection in the shape of involuntary
retrogression. The voluntary nature of the sacri-
fice, however, in conjunction of course with the
fact that it is more or less rational, would deprive
it of all appearance of a risible imperfection; and
thus in effect moral excellence in no wise concerns
my theory.
MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES. 25
To refer now to injustices. Many of these, and
the risible imperfections resulting from them, are
so plainly definable that nothing need be said of
them here. Such are interferences with rights,
public or private, in the shape of prevention, by
obstruction, of legitimate progress, destruction of
valuable property or diminution of its value, and
displacement of it; the risible imperfection caused
by the latter offence being loss of valuable pro-
perty in the shape of time and energy spent in
seeking or replacing the property. Practical
jokes causing risible imperfections in various ways
are another common form of interference.
With other injustices the precise direction in
which the injustice lies or the risible imperfection
resulting from it is not so obvious, and these,
therefore, call for some remark.
The offence of, without just cause, applying to
a person an epithet, such as scoundrel or villain,
indicating general moral inferiority in him, or,
likewise unjustly, accusing another of any par-
ticular injustice, seriously, in the belief that the
charge is just, or jocularly, under the pretence of
such belief, causes an exhibition by the accused
of risible imperfection (of Sect. I. Class I. of
risible phases) by reason of the evidence of
diminution, really or ostensibly only, of the
esteem which had been supposed (by a person or
persons other than the accuser) to be accorded by
26 MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES.
A
•
the accuser to the other on account of moral
merit, the counterbalancing gain from real moral
inferiority, which would prevent diminution of
esteem from involving risible imperfection, being
absent here. The exhibition of risible imper-
fection would be made only to such as believed in
or knew of the accused person's innocence of the
charge.
Where the charge is seriously made, the dimi-
nution of esteem being then of course real, not
ostensible only, the moral aspect of the injustice
would outweigh to the observer the slight risible
element, while when the charge is jocular, the
moral aspect being then merely formal, the risible
imperfection—the ostensible diminution of esteem
-becomes prominent, and claims a smile.
An unjust imputation to a person, made seriously
or jocularly, of a lower degree of perfection, other
than moral, than he or others thought pertained
to him would, as with unjust imputations in
regard to moral standing, cause imperfection in
the person unjustly depreciated, of Sect. I. Class
I.; the exhibition being made only to such as im-
puted the higher degree of perfection.
Dishonourable conduct-betrayal of trust-is,
of course, an injustice; involving necessarily ex-
hibition in another of some form of risible im-
perfection, made to every person knowing of the
procedure and of its character, while the like
Moral PERFECTION: INJUSTICES. 27
exhibition would be made in respect of conduct
erroneously regarded as dishonourable by anyone.
In addition to its non-risible character of injustice
to others, all such conduct, it seems to me, in-
volves a risible imperfection in the defaulter in
the shape of a lack of the natural moral dignity
of man (Sect. VI. Class I. of risible phases). Dis-
honourable procedure may be divided into the two
categories of (1) actions, with omission to act as
demanded by honour, and (2) speeches, or written
statements, with which we may group indications
of thought other than by language, such indica-
tions being of varying degrees of definiteness.
(1) Abstraction of the money of others entrusted
to one may be mentioned as one of the commoner
forms of dishonourable actions, the loss of the
money being of course the risible imperfection
caused.
Dishonour is shown in the procedure we call
discourtesy or impoliteness-betrayals of trust in
a large number of matters which are usually not
grave enough and often not sufficiently definite to
be dealt with by law. Under the category of
dishonourable actions in this direction-of dis-
courtesy, would come offences, no detailed illus-
trations of which need here be given, of com-
mission, omission, and refusal to comply with
applications for the exhibition of courtesy needed
by others.
28 MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES.
The imperfection caused in another by dis-
courteous actions may take the forms of retrogres-
sion, of demonstrable obstruction of legitimate
progress, or of obstruction which is not demon-
strable. Retrogression is seen where small
damages or deterioration of one's clothes are
caused by another's carelessness. Demonstrable
obstruction of legitimate progress is seen where a
person blocks a public thoroughfare. Obstruction
which is not demonstrable would be caused when
a request to another to do one some small service,
costing him little or nothing, is refused. The
progress desired is, though not demonstrably, yet
presumably legitimate, because the presumption
is that the person asking the favour renders an
equal quantity of these services to his fellows.
All discourtesy appears to me to involve, in
addition to the risible imperfection in the form of
lack of moral dignity, which, as I have mentioned,
dishonour in general implies, a risible imperfec-
tion in the shape of loss of intellectual dignity, by
reason of the petty character of the dishonour.
(2) Falsehoods, or intentional misrepresenta-
tions of events, may be divided into the three
classes of the serious, the jocular, and the
nominal; the serious being dishonest or other-
wise according to whether the object is a material
benefit or some practical joke or other hoax; the
jocular being those not expected to be believed in,

MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES. 29
•
and the nominal falsehoods being those not con-
stituting attempts, serious or jocular, at deceit,*
among this class being included such imaginative
literature and narrations as are not expressly
stated to be ideal only, though as regards these
latter, perhaps we should say that although it
may not be stated in the work itself, or by the
narrator, that the statement is fictitious, we may
take an intimation to that effect as understood to
have been made through another channel, viz.,
that through which our knowledge of the fictitious
character of much literature has reached us.
In any case nominal falsehoods are without any
of the appearance of offence which real falsehoods,
serious or jocular, have; nor is any risible imper-
fection on the part of the recipient involved in
them.
The risible imperfection necessarily caused in a
person to whom a falsehood is told,-imperfection
exhibited to such as know of or believe in the
falsity of the statement,-would, it seems to me,
be obstruction of the progress which the reception
* The conditions excluding a false statement from the category
of attempts at deceit, would seem to be, assuming the recipient
of the falsehood to be an adult, the presence of two or more of
the following three conditions: (1) the statement being the pro-
fession of an opinion only, the correctness of which may be
easily ascertained elsewhere; (2) no material issues being in-
volved in the statement; and (3) the opinion being contrary to
common sense, making it unlikely that the recipient would be-
lieve in the statement.

30 MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES.

of true information affords if acted on, exc~~
where the information is of that descript
whose use would be the redress of injustice, wh
the necessary effect of the falsehood as regar
risibility would be not obstruction of the poss
bility of progress, but the continuance of th
risible imperfection caused by the injustice, in
stead of its termination by reason of redress being
obtained in the shape of punishment or compensa-
tion. And in any procedure taken in the belief or
hope that a false statement is or may be true there
would be further risible imperfection in the shape
of loss of time, money, energy, etc., alike where
the object was progress and where it was the
redress of injustice.
Such conduct as slander involves necessarily
diminution of esteem for the slandered person
which was previously accorded by those imposed
on by the slander. While there may be caused
on occasion experience of obstruction of legitimate
progress on the part of the slandered person,
through social ostracism resulting from the false-
hood.
It would seem that where a single falsehood or
systematic misrepresentation is in such a direction
that there is no reasonable probability that it will
be permanently successful-will result in other
than a net loss to the producer—we recognize it
when exposed as indicating intellectual and thus
MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES: 31
risible, as well as moral, inferiority. When, for
instance, a serious deception has been exercised
respecting the procedure of a third person from
whom information of his actions could easily be
obtained by the person to whom the lie is told,
there is intellectual inferiority shown. We should
not regard these falsehoods as having been wholly
unaccompanied by a prospect of gain to the pro-
ducer, but they would be so obviously unworthy
of the risk of detection as to indicate an intel-
lectual inferiority.
Another form of dishonourable speech is lan-
guage which we call discourteous on account of
its matter; this form of discourtesy being the in-
dication to a person or before his presence, from
other motives than the interests of morality, of
moral or other inferiority in him to the average
individual, convention giving everyone the right
to be treated in his presence as possessing average
intellectual, æsthetic, and social, qualities, what-
ever his may really be, and as possessing average
morality provided he shows moral inferiority of
no graver description than venial offences. This
procedure is synonymously described as the com-
munication of unnecessary truths, or supposed
truths, of an unpleasant nature.
Of course, if a person refers to this moral in-
feriority in the interests of morality, we recognize
32 MORAL PERFECTION; INJUSTICES.
an imperative object before which considerations
of courtesy must disappear.
Speech which is discourteous on account of
tone or manner is dishonourable, it appears to
me, because the generality of members of society
trust their fellows to show in their exchange of
speech a sense of equality in respect that the
information and other services which one obtains
by speech with one's fellows are voluntarily
afforded by them, and could be withheld if they
chose. This recognition of equality is made in
the employment of such phrases as: If you please
-be good enough-will you, etc., etc. ; or, with-
out the employment of actual words indicating
request, in the adoption of what we recognize as a
tone of request, not demand. The discourteous
person shows no recognition of the equality
which exists in this direction between himself
and others, but speaks as if he had power to
compel the benefits of social intercourse, thus
betraying the trust put in him by his fellows to do
as they do-make recognition in their words, or
tone, of equality in the above respect. The form
which the risible imperfection in the person
addressed by the discourteous individual takes
would be the loss of esteem which a member of
society is presumed to accord to his fellows in
virtue of their holding this position of equality
with him. This imperfection would, of course, be

MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES. 33
not affected by any preclusion of progress through
ostracism which a discourteous person might
experience. The very fact of discourteous speech
involves loss of esteem, a loss which it needs but
like language or tone in return to cause in the
other.
Conceit, pride, and vanity may be described as
being in some cases indications by word, tone, or
manner, of a sense of some superiority to society,
or sections of it, which is not generally admitted,
and in others, gratuitous, i.e., unnecessary, indica-
tions of an admitted superiority. These qualities,
in whatever shape they are exhibited, naturally
must give offence, but it may, I suppose, be
said that they indicate injustice only when
shown gratuitously. The injustice, it would seem,
is by reason of society considering that justice
is observed in the enjoyment by a person possessing
any qualities of superiority, of such benefits
therefrom as may accrue to him in other ways
than unnecessarily reminding society, or a section
of it, of its inferiority to him in the qualities in
which he excels the benefits, namely, which may
accrue to him in the shape of material advantages,
and society's esteem. (The inferiority on the
part of society is, of course, not a risible one,
being the degree of perfection possessed by the
generality, though in the shape of feelings of
annoyance or indignation, society would show
Ď
34 MORAL PERFECTION: INJUSTICES.
imperfection, of Sect. II., Class 1.) And since
society, as the stronger party, is presumably able
to enforce justice in this respect, the injustice
would take the form of dishonour, though not the
particular form of discourtesy, for the rules of
courtesy would not seem to be violated here.
When a person is aware that he is committing
injustice in gratuitous exhibition of conceit, etc.,
the exhibition would not involve mental in-
feriority, unless, that is, the superiority was not
generally admitted. Those, however, who were
not aware that the gratuitous evidence of conceit
in them was unjust, or not aware that they were
showing the quality, would in respect of their
ignorance exhibit (along with their unintentional
dishonour) risible imperfection in the shape of
inferiority (intrinsic) of mental perception. While,
of course, all those who claimed a superiority
which was not generally considered to exist would
be regarded as exhibiting mental inferiority on
that account.
CHAPTER V.
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL, AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL
NOVELTY.
THE ingenuity with which a theory of wit and
humour is concerned relates, with a few such
exceptions as mother wit and various other ideas
of practical value, to phases mainly interesting
the intellectual sense of persons in general. As
stated in the synopsis in Chapter II., which I
recapitulate in various particulars, it comprises
three species.
The first, which will be designated throughout
the book by the term, ingenuity of the first
species, is the discovery, by special search, of
various ideas, to be enumerated in detail later on,
and of which a general description has been given
in the synopsis.
The second species, which may be otherwise
designated as conscious invention (a term appro-
priate because the like phases to those discovered
36
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
•
by this species of ingenuity are often produced in
unconsciousness of their risible nature), is the
discovery, by special search, of risible phases,
with or without circumstantial novelty No. 1
(circumstantial novelty from the presence of an
excuse for imperfection) for jocular exhibition in
one's self, or for ascription to fictitious personages,
as in novels, or fictitiously, to existing persons.
It is often convenient (as giving a certain excuse
for the joke) when presenting a phase of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2 opposed to common sense, to
profess belief in the full propriety-the conformity
with common sense-of such presentation. This pro-
fession, when it is an ostensible mental inferiority
and not a nominal falsehood,* would be a phase of
conscious invention, though of course one of a
fixed and uniform character, and wholly without
interest in itself.
The third species is the discovery, by special
search, of phases, risible or non-risible as the
case may be, of circumstantial novelty No. 2
(circumstantial novelty from remoteness of the
phase from the ordinary mental range), the dis-
covery of such of these phases as have what I
have called a "special connection with the events
of the occasion," being a sub-species, for which I
reserve the term wit.
There are diverse conditions attending the dis-
* A phase of this latter description being produced by inge-
nuity of the first species.
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY.
37
covery of phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2,
in respect of such several matters as expression of
the phase of novelty, presentation without expres-
sion, expression with necessity of apprehension by
the observer (i.e., appropriation of an utterance
exclusively to the expression of the phase of
novelty), expression without that necessity: also
in respect of the presence or absence of a uniform
or formal presumptive evidence of ingenuity. A
diversity of condition in this last respect is some-
what rare, the formal presumptive evidence being
present in most cases; the few occasions where it
is absent being those of incidents where it is
either superseded by positive evidence of ingenuity
of the third species, or those where, from the
phase of novelty being a mental imperfection in
the presenter, the evidence of ingenuity of the
third species, if there is any, is merely arbitrary.
These diversities of condition, and the precise
meaning or application of the various terms I
have just been using, will be elucidated, explained,
and illustrated in this and the following chapter.
Circumstantial novelty—that is, novelty attach-
ing to a phase by reason of a connection with
particular circumstances, and giving it an extrinsic
value-as I have said, is of two descriptions, of
which the following is a general statement.
Novelty of the first description is received on
38
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
occasion by certain mental inferiorities by reason
of the existence of an excuse for the imperfection.
Novelty of the second is received on occasion by
phases in general, risible and non-risible (risibility
in a phase being only an incidental feature), by
reason of the phase having a more or less sensible
connection with a phase or phases definitely placed
before one, while being more or less remote from
the ordinary mental range, with the latter phase
or phases in view without the former
Beyond a particular statement of the conditions
giving circumstantial novelty No. 1, nothing is
needed by way of explanation of this description
of novelty; and the particulars of the conditions
will accordingly be incorporated in the same
chapter (VII.) which gives the illustrations, being
omitted here as too long for convenient repe-
tition.
These phases, it may be observed, are not, like
those receiving circumstantial novelty No. 2,
almost without exception formally recognizable as
due to ingenuity, but in common with risible
phases without circumstantial novelty No. 1, are
of serious exhibition or are due to ingenuity
(conscious invention) according to circumstances.
With regard to circumstantial novelty No. 2
considerable explanation is required on such
matters as various general causes of the novelty
in various groups of incidents; substantial dif-

9
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY.
39
ferences in the value of the novelty,—a difference
in one case, viz., puns, characterising an entire
group of incidents, but generally depending upon
the nature of the particular incident of a group;
elucidation of special phrases; and incidental
remarks. These explanations, etc., are given in
the present chapter.
Stating now in full the conditions giving cir-
cumstantial novelty No. 2, these are―(1) a more
or less sensible connection of the phase with some
verbal expression (expressions, as regards group
No. 4, Chapter VI.) or with some event not ver-
bally indicated, which we may call the event (or, in
group No. 4, events) of the occasion; and (2) re-
moteness* from the range of the mind ordinarily
with the event or events of the occasion in view.†
The phases of novelty form two classes. Those
of the first have a legitimate connection with the
event or events of the occasion, from their being
* Momentarily with everyone, and for a longer time or per-
manently according to the nature of the phase of novelty or the
ability of the particular person or persons concerned.
+ In the majority of jokes we have the event of the occasion
produced first, and the phase of novelty at a subsequent time put
forward by verbal expression. In puns and a few other cases the
event of the occasion is produced, and the phase of novelty easily
perceived by most persons a moment later, expression being un-
necessary on that account. Where there is what I call a con-
comitant and incidental event of the occasion, it is produced, in
relation to the primary event, in varying order according to
circumstances.
40
on ingenuUITY IN GENERAL,
phases which, according to their particular descrip-
tion, are either in the actual course of things before
their discovery ;* are reasonably possible of being
in the actual course of things before their dis-
covery;† are reasonably possible of realization
in the external world;‡ are more or less appro-
priate as being of a natural character or other-
wise legitimate—of being brought into (immediate)
future connection with the event of the occasion ;§
or are phases which, while not reasonably possible
of realization, are given legitimacy of connection
by the laws of hyperbole, or by the license of
ridicule.|| Phases of novelty of the second class
have, while a sensible, yet in no wise a legitimate,
connection with the event of the occasion.
The term "reasonable possibility of realization "
(in the past or future), which with certain phases
determines the class to which they belong, is used
in the liberal and comprehensive sense which is
demanded when, as is usually the case in a theory
of this kind, the intellectual as distinguished
from the practical aspect of the phase is regarded;
* e.g., the second signification of a pun; the remote particular
interpretation of a general utterance the expression of which
constitutes a verbal quibble; and illustrations Nos. 1 and 2,
Chapter VI., Part 11.
+ e.g., Nos. 5 to 17, Chapter VI., Part II.
See Nos. 3 and 4, Chapter VI., Part II.
§ See Nos. 18 to 25, Chapter VI., Part II.
|| See Obvious Exaggerations, Chapter VI., Part III.; and No. 3,
Chapter VI., Part III.
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY. 41
the expression applying to all phases whose
actuality is not incompatible with the laws of
nature.
This definition, though not perhaps
clearly comprehensible at present, will, I think,
become so when taken in connection with the
illustrations in the next chapter. At the same
time I should observe that it is not a primary
essential that any division into classes of phases
of circumstantial novelty No. 2 should be made-
that any definition of what is reasonably possible
of realization should be supplied; the circum-
stance of a phase of novelty possessing "legiti-
macy" of connection, not being of further import
than that it gives the phase a certain specific
element of value.
Of the phases of novelty in class 1, a large pro-
portion have a connection which I may call special,
from the phase being, while unperceived for the
moment or longer, definitely presented wholly or,
as to one group of incidents, in part, by the
events of the occasion.* This definite presenta-
tion takes place by reason of the phase being
either comprised in, while not being expressed by,
the events of the occasion (instances of these
phases being found in the remote particular in-
terpretations of general utterances constituting the
* The plural word "events" may be conveniently used as a
rule to signify indifferently a single event when the occasion
presents but one, or two when there are two of them.
42
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
ordinary form of verbal quibble, and in identities
and antitheses); expressed, while not immediately
perceptible, if perceived at all, (as with puns);
expressed, while not noted, because ignored by
convention (these phases being the literal interpre-
tations of metaphors and idioms); expressed as
regards one or more of its main features (see Nos.
25 to 32, Chapter VI., Part I.); or, while not being
thus comprised in or expressed by the events of
the occasion, is yet definitely presented by them,
from the phase having either what I call an "ex-
ceptional immediate connection" with the events
of the occasion, or an "invariable immediate
class connection " with them,
The exceptional immediate connections form
two varieties; in the first-the incidents here
relating solely to human procedure-the phase
of novelty being of special importance, from being
of an undesirable character; and in the second
-these incidents relating to external nature-
the phase of novelty having a like special import-
ance from its being remarkable. The connections
are called exceptional because the events of the
description of those in these incidents commonly
have no phases of special importance immediately
connected with them.
The invariable immediate class connection I
have mentioned is that which a phase possesses
from belonging to a class of ideas any one of
AND CIRCUMSTANTial novelty.
43
which is according to which of the two divisions
of this group of incidents it belongs to-reason-
ably possible of actual immediate association in
the present with the events of the occasion, or
more or less natural or appropriate of actual
association in the immediate future with the
events.
The rest of the phases of class I. have, from
their not being thus definitely presented by the
events of the occasion, a general connection only
with them; as have for the same reason all the
phases of class II.
The circumstances which I call the "events of
the occasion" call for one or two observations.
They are mainly single events, and verbal ex-
pressions. To specify them in a few groups ;-in
puns the event is a verbal expression, with an
easily perceived second signification; the event of
the occasion being the form of words in the first
signification, and the remote phase-the phase
of circumstantial novelty No. 2-the second
signification. With a verbal quibble the event
of the occasion is a general utterance, and the
remote phase a particular interpretation other
than that indicated by common sense.
With
identities and antitheses the events are two in
number, the identity or antithesis between them
being the remote phase. With all of the more
44
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
ordinary verbal quibbles (class I. of these jokes)
of the least propriety of production, and with most
jokes in any way appropriate on metaphors, what
I call a "concomitant and incidental" event of
the occasion is necessary, in addition to the per-
manent (or primary) event. Procedure not ex-
pressed in words may, provided it is fully definite,
constitute an event of the occasion, but there are
not many instances of this.
It is a condition of the propriety of production
of the event or events of an occasion that it or
they should have been produced in a natural
manner; or, where there are two events, that they
should have been brought into natural association
with each other. At the same time* there would
be no less wit-in the sense in which I use the
word-shown by a person who discovered a phase
of novelty when the event or events of the occasion
happened to be before him without having been
naturally produced or naturally brought into
association.
The phases of novelty are removed from the
ordinary mental range momentarily, or longer by
reason severally of the following circumstances.
As regards the phases of special connection, some
are remote because it is not imperative on one to
seek special relations between ideas (see identities
* See, for instance, illustration No. 19, Chapter VI., Part I.
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY.
45
and antitheses); some because, while the phase of
novelty is expressed, right reason (see puns), or
convention (see metaphors and idioms treated from
the risible point of view), presents another idea
solely. The phases of novelty presented in verbal
quibbles are remote because not in the direction
indicated by common sense. Those contained in
the events of the occasion not altogether but in
one or more prominent features, are remote
because ordinarily if the mind conceived any
phase retaining the prominent features of the
event of the occasion, such phase would be a
fundamentally similar one, whereas the phase of
novelty presents a fundamental difference. The
phases having an invariable immediate class con-
nection are remote because, while the phase is
definitely presented by reason of the possession of
that connection, it is either not the phase indicated
by common sense, or not that indicated by the
ordinary principles of human procedure. The
phases of exceptional immediate connection, and
not pertaining to external nature, are remote
because right reason does not require us to look
for the phase (the remoteness here being usually
no more than momentary); and the phases of
external nature, with exceptional immediate con-
nection, because there is nothing to suggest a
search for any remarkable phase in connection
with the events of the ocasion. Obvious exaggera-
46
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
tions are remote, because the mind ordinarily
contemplates a phase in its true or approximately
true aspect. The phases having general connec-
tions only, these constituting the rest of class I.
and the whole of class II., are remote because in
opposition to common sense.
And the necessary risible phase in one form or
another, and in one person or another, caused by
this remoteness (and specified at the beginning of
Chapter VI.) gives, with further imperfection or
not according to circumstances, a more or less
risible aspect to every incident containing a
phase of circumstantial novelty No. 2.
We see from the foregoing that the expression,
remoteness from the ordinary mental range,
implies a definite limitation* of the mind for
the moment or longer to an idea or ideas other
than the phase of circumstantial novelty No. 2.
Supposing one on the presentation of the events
of an occasion, to set aside such one or more of
the above limitations as he may choose, and
engage in the search for a phase of circum-
stantial novelty, our attention becomes directed
to another quality than the above generic charac-
* Where, as with the phases of exceptional immediate connec-
tion, there is no special reason to suppose there is any exceptional
phase connected with the events of the occasion, this circumstance
would limit the mind ordinarily to the contemplation of the event
of the occasion simply.
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY. 47
teristic which the novel phase possesses as a
factor of one of the incidents of a group, in its
turn belonging to the category of incidents pre-
senting phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2;
viz., the individual characteristic of difficulty of
discovery, much or little, upon which of course
depends the whole substantial amount of the
ingenuity of the third species. With the whole
group of puns difficulty of discovery necessarily
can only characterise the events of the occasion
(provided then by ingenuity of the first species)
while now and then chance, obviating ingenuity,
will provide a pun, viz., when in the ordinary
course of things one has occasion to express an
idea, and the first form of words that presents
itself constitutes a pun; which the speaker as a
rule would note, but of which he might never be
conscious unless it were pointed out to him. Nor
with the first variety of group No. 6, or with
group (strictly speaking, a special category) No.
8, is there ever any difficulty of discovery of the
phase of novelty. In various other groups,
varieties, or divisions, the phase of novelty in
an incident will be marked by difficulty of dis-
covery or not according to circumstances.
.
As regards the causes of difficulty of discovery,
and consequent appreciable value attaching to some
phases of novelty, a proportion of them receive
a definite amount of appreciable value under
48
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
:
general conditions, while all receive an indefinite
degree of value according to the circumstances of
the particular incident.
Having now explained, so far as can be done
without specific illustration, the nature of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, the witting discovery of
which, we have seen, constitutes ingenuity of the
third species, I arrive at the other two species of
ingenuity. Species No. 2, being the witting
invention of any of the risible phases illustrated
in Chapters VIII., IX., and X., needs no reference
here. The chief forms which ingenuity of the
first species takes are;―mother wit, the solution,
as we may define it, of the difficulties more
especially connected with every-day life; ingenious
expedients in general of a practical kind; false-
hoods not presented in connection with the " events
of an occasion"; the invention of similes within
the limits of substantially rational comparison,
some with a risible, others with a non-risible
subject of comparison; the production of
metaphors; and-this being the one form of this
species of ingenuity which will call for special
reference, though, as it is connected with circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, the scope of the references
will be co-extensive with that subject-the provi-
sion at times (in the case of puns, almost
invariably) of the events of the occasion in
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY.
49
incidents presenting phases of circumstantial
novelty No. 2.
And here I may state the grounds upon which I
think the name of wit might in a scientific analysis
be reserved, as I have said I reserve it, to designate
the discovery of the phases of circumstantial
novelty having a special connection with the
events of the occasion. Taking, in the first place,
the word wit to be a term especially indicative of
an absolute superiority, the reason is this-that it
is only by the discovery of these phases specially
connected with the events of the occasion-phases
definitely presented, and from the momentary
limitation of the mind, for the moment at least un-
perceived-that an absolute superiority is shown;
the superiority being in relation to oneself on
first contemplating the events of the occasion, as
also in relation to any other persons at the
moment of their contemplation of such events.
For it is these definitely presented phases only
which give that uniformity of condition for all
persons alike as regards opportunity for discovery,
which alone admits of the exhibition of absolute
superiority, these phases only which give every
one an equal chance of discovering them. This
is of course only a question of nomenclature, and
it is a matter of indifference whether I designate
the perception of these phases by the term wit, or
E
50
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
by the more general expression, ingenuity of the
third species; but for the sake of brevity I will
adopt the former term.
To resume. All search, even though unsuccessful,
for events having a phase of circumstantial novelty
of the second description connected with them
would be exercise of ingenuity of the first species,
provided, that is, that some reasonable idea is
discovered. Thus (taking the would-be punster's
mode of proceeding) a person who, with an idea
before him, seeks, in addition to the form of words.
first occurring to him for the expression of such
idea, any other form of expression, and finds it,
exercises ingenuity of the first species. So, too,
would a person seeking some general form of
words with a view to extracting from them a
particular interpretation more or less remote from
the ordinary mental range (a person, that is,
seeking material out of which a verbal quibble
can be produced); even if he failed in finding a
general utterance, and merely succeeded in finding
a reasonable idea. This much, of course, every-
one can do. Unless, however, the idea discovered
by the would-be punster or quibbler has a phase
of circumstantial novelty connected with it, it
cannot be utilised; while moreover, if the phase of
novelty is appreciably difficult of discovery with
the events of the occasion before one, a propor-
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY.
51
tionate degree of wit is of course required to
discover it. With almost all-probably all-puns,
one's object is practically achieved when the
events of the occasion-the pun, regarded solely
in its first signification—are provided; the phase
of novelty-the second signification-requiring a
wholly immaterial degree of wit for its discovery, a
circumstance rendering it unnecessary for the
punster, when he has given expression to his
sentence, to indicate its second signification to
others: (if there are any puns difficult of percep-
tion, the jesters must point them out, or resign
themselves to their probably passing unnoted).
Risible phases invented by one person, but the
unwitting or witting exhibition of which is
ascribed by him to other individuals, existing or
imaginary, are, as I have said elsewhere, due to
conscious invention, not the present species of
ingenuity; but to this species is due that large
category of risible incidents in which the exhibi-
tion of imperfection by one person is effected by
indirect means devised by another; such as
practical jokes of most kinds, hoaxes, the devices
and practical deceptions which enter largely into
the material of comedies and farces, and are met
with here and there in humorous literature; it
being, of course, the imperfection itself which
constitutes the risible element in the incident.
To this species of ingenuity also belongs the
52
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
invention of obviously incredible statements
(absurdities) not presented in connection with
the events of an occasion; and such inconceivable
propositions as are simple, not complex, and
therefore could not be made seriously.
The nature of the evidence of ingenuity, more
especially of that of the third species, calls for
some remark.
The evidence is of one or other of three descrip-
tions, according to the phase presented. It may
be variable and indefinite. Secondly, uniform or
formal presumptive evidence, (this being confined
to a proportion-the greater proportion-of inci-
dents containing phases of circumstantial novelty
No. 2, and existing in virtue of the intrinsic
nature of the incident, not depending upon the char-
acter for ability of any particular person). Thirdly,
positive evidence, this being furnished either (a)
by a person's assurance that a phase of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2 presented by him was due
to ingenuity *; (b) by reason of the phase not
being reasonably possible of realization, or being
an inconceivable proposition in the shape of simple
nonsense; or (c) by reason of its being a phase of
intrinsic excellence, as it seems to me are all the
* Thus superseding formal presumptive evidence where that
would otherwise exist.
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY. 53
ideas due to ingenuity of the first species, except
' events of an occasion," and the phases just
specified under the heading (b). The evidence of
a falsehood being due to ingenuity would of
course only arise when the falsity of the state-
ment was known.
To state the evidence shown with the respective
species: With ingenuity of the first species it is,
as I have implied, positive evidence as regards all
ideas not being events of an occasion. With
respect to these latter, the evidence is variable and
indefinite; though with one group-puns-as we
have seen, we may be almost certain that the
events in any given incident are due to ingenuity.
With humour by surprise-a division of the
phases of invariable immediate class connection
-the events of the occasion are probably in
the greater number of cases provided by in-
genuity. So, too, are many of the twofold
events containing identities or antitheses between
them.
Of conscious invention (not being invention of the
fixed and uniform mental inferiority which, as I
have before observed, often accompanies the pre-
sentation of a phase of circumstantial novelty
No. 2) nothing need be said but that the evidence
of ingenuity is indefinite, and variable according to
one's opinion of the ability of the originator or
54
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
supposed originator of the imperfection, actual or
represented.
As regards ingenuity of the third species, uniform
or formal presumptive evidence exists, with three
more or less comprehensive exceptions, to be stated
forthwith, on behalf of any person presenting* the
phase of novelty, provided the phase is not a
mental imperfection in the presenter, this circum-
stance acting as a disqualification for the formal
presumption of ingenuity, and admitting only of
such indefinite evidence as there may or may not
be, according to whether one thinks the presenter
was joking or speaking seriously. This formal
presumptive evidence attaches to the presentation
of the phase simply because we are warranted in
presuming, and we know that as a rule it is a
fact, that a person who presents one of these
phases has made exercise of ingenuity. The pre-
sumptive evidence might be fallacious, as where a
person makes a pun without ever noting it, or
where a particular interpretation of a general
utterance, which interpretation would be remote
to persons in general, and thus possess circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, was the only one which
* That is, the person ostensibly presenting it, who may be, for
instance, a fictitious personage created by a novelist, who has
not, however, expressly indicated him as being fictitious; or some
existing personage to whom the incident is fictitiously ascribed,
while really invented by the narrator.
and circumstantial novelTY. 55
occurred to a given individual; but the rule would
obtain nevertheless.
The three conditions under which the presenta-
tion of a phase of circumstantial novelty No. 2
is not accompanied by formal presumptive evidence
of ingenuity, are as follows.-(1) The formal
presumption being superseded by the positive
evidence of the presenter's assurance that the
phase was due to ingenuity; (2) Its supersession by
the positive evidence which arises when the phase
is not reasonably possible of realization, and thus
necessarily due to ingenuity; (3) The formal
presumption—the phase here being a statement
of the presenter's own motives for conduct, a
statement professedly of simple truth, not of
ingenious invention-being nullified (see remarks
on apparent falsehoods, group 7, division 1)
in virtue of the presenter being the one person
who knows the truth.
As I have mentioned (though without par-
ticularising) elsewhere, of the phases of novelty
whose production is not in conformity with
common sense, many which are not contained in
the events of the occasion require, to give an ex-
cuse for their production, a profession of the
presenter's belief in the full propriety of the pro-
duction. This profession is sometimes made in
so many words, as in illustration No. 6, Chapter
56
ON INGENUITY IN GENERAL,
VI., Part II., and sometimes in a less explicit
manner, though no less definitely, as in Nos.
7 and 8, Chapter VI., Part II., and elsewhere.
The profession (which is an exhibition of
mental inferiority-defective common-sense
if
the phase of novelty is reasonably possible of
realization, and a nominal falsehood where the
phase of novelty is not of that description)
is, as we see, made in one and the same sen-
tence which presents the phase of novelty, and
it is, therefore, important to remember that the
mental inferiority, or the nominal falsehood, is
a phase distinct from the one of circumstantial
novelty. As a desirable accompaniment, though
not an indispensable condition, of the presen-
tation of one of these phases of novelty, the
mental inferiority, if the profession takes that
form, in no wise acts as a disqualification for
the formal presumptive evidence of ingenuity
in the presentation of the phase of novelty it
accompanies, but is attended by the like formal
presumptive evidence of ingenuity of the second
species as regards itself. And the two formal
presumptions in these cases, we see, stand or
fall together, for if there is no profession of
belief in the full propriety of the presentation
of the phase of novelty, and that phase is pre-
sented merely as having a more or less sensible

ADDENDUM AND ERRATUM.
Pages 58 and 59.
Before presentation," where that word
occurs, read "jocular."
Page 63, line 1. After "presumptive," read or else positive."
AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY. 57
-connection with the events of the occasion, the
evidence of ingenuity of the third species is
positive.
As regards those phases of novelty contained in
the respective events of an occasion, which are
easily discoverable by persons in general, with or
without the imperative obligation to seek them
which (see the second class of puns) sometimes
exists, there is formal presumptive evidence of in-
genuity-of wit-on behalf of all observers of the
events of the occasion, as being presumably persons
of ordinary intelligence. The evidence may be
fallacious on occasion, but the rule obtains.
Where a personage in a novel presents a phase
of circumstantial novelty No. 2, and the author
has not expressly stated that such personage is
fictitious, the latter, as I have mentioned, is the
ostensible inventor of the phase, and, as such, the
formal presumptive evidence of ingenuity attaches
to him. But variable and indefinite evidence of
the novelist being the real inventor would be pre-
sented according to circumstances. Likewise, on
an occasion when a person is credited by word of
mouth with the presentation of a phase of novelty,
there might be variable and indefinite evidence of
the professed narrator being himself the real in-
ventor of the phase.
Part I.-Phases definitely pre-
sented by the events of the
occasion, and contained in
them wholly or in part.
Part II.-Phases definitely pre-
sented by the events of the
occasion, but not contained in
them.
Also
....
Part III.-Phases not presented
by the events of the occasion.
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VI.
CLASS I. OF PHASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY
No. 2. (PHASES HAVING LEGITIMACY OF PRESEN-
TATION.)
Groups.
(1) Puns. (2) Verbal quibbles. (3) Metaphors
and idioms from the risible point of view. (4)
Identities and antitheses. (5) Phases partly
contained in events of occasion.
(6) Phases with exceptional immediate connection.
(7) Ditto with invariable immediate class connec-
tion.
(8) Special category (Inversions of certain ordinary
processes of jocularity) provided from Groups 2
and 7; some phases contained, some not con-
tained, in events of occasion.
(9) Obvious exaggerations of certain phases. (10)
Obviously exaggerated similes applied to im-
perfections. (11) Phases of invariable imme-
diate unlimited class connection; legitimate of
presentation through license.
CLASS II. OF PHASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
NOVELTY No. 2 (PHASES WITHOUT LEGITIMACY
OF PRESENTATION.)
Group.
(12) Phases with invariable immediate unlimited
class connection.
Phases of special connection
with events of occasion. Dis-
covery of these (not in all
cases followed by expression)
may be called wit (sub-species
of ingenuity of third species).
Phases of general connection
with events of occasion. Dis-
covery of these (necessarily
followed by expression) is in-
genuity of the third species.
t
CHAPTER VI.
SPECIFIC ILLUSTRATION OF INCIDENTS
CONTAINING
PHASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY NO. 2.
PART I.
THERE are, as we have seen, two classes of phases
of circumstantial novelty No. 2; class I. (the
phases in which are legitimate of presentation)
comprising both phases having special connection
with the events of the occasion (from being de-
finitely presented by these, wholly or in part, in a
more or less latent form), discovery of these phases
constituting wit, and phases generally connected
with the "events. The phases of class II. (these
being without legitimacy of presentation, and
having merely a sensible connection with the
events of the occasion) have a general connection
only with the occasion.
The incidents are all risible in one way or
another, there being, independently of whether
the phase of novelty itself is risible, at least one
imperfection-generic, as we may call it-common
60 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
to the several phases of, as the case may be, a
division of a class (the first division, presenting
special connections, though not the other division,
of class I.), the first of two large categories shortly
to be mentioned, a group, or a division of a group.
These generic imperfections, being of a wholly
mechanical description, are without interest, and
have but very slight prominence; and it is, it may
be observed, this slightness of the generic imper-
fections, more especially in the first division of
class I.-the special connections-which enables
many of these incidents (provided the phase of
novelty itself is not risible) to show so close an
affinity with the non-risible ingenuities-the
similes and metaphors-of the orator and poet,
while presenting the difference that the one
description of incident is risible and the other not.
•
Specifying the first of these generic imperfec-
tions: the incidents of special connection present
a common, a generic, risible phase in the shape of
a perceptible falsification (adventitious inferiority,
of Sect. 1, Class II. of imperfections) of an in-
stinctive judgment for the moment or longer by
the observer of the incident (or in certain cases,
only by a person or persons imagined by him*),
* Where the incident is such that with the actual observer the
event of the occasion does not precede the phase of novelty, the
falsification is ideal merely, being the suggested falsification of
the judgment of some person (oneself or anyone) with the event
of the occasion before him, but the phase of novelty not yet pre-
sented.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
61
that the phase (the phases, as regards the two
events presenting an identity or an antithesis be-
tween them) immediately perceived on the pre-
sentation of the event or events of the occasion, is.
the only phase (or, as regards identities or anti-
theses, are the only phases) presented to the ob-
server, or the imaginary person, as the case may
be.
The two large categories I have mentioned com-
prise the incidents presenting phases of novelty
whose presentation, however valuable they may be
from any rarity they may possess, is not fully ap-
propriate-not fully in accordance with common-
sense-such phases being the whole of those in
class II., and most of those in class I. (identities
and antitheses, and puns, being among the excep-
tions). In the first, the phase of novelty is accom-
panied by the profession, mentioned in the pre-
ceding chapter (see the heading, Evidence of
Ingenuity) of the presenter's belief in the full
propriety of the presentation of the phase; a pro-
fession made to gain an excuse for presenting the
phase. The second category is composed of phases
which do not need this profession for their con-
venient presentation, and those incidents-though
no one ordinarily would think of taking such a
course-where the presenter, at the cost of cir-
cumlocution, stated his knowledge that his idea-
more or less valuable from its connection with the
62 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
events of the occasion-was contrary to common-
sense.
The generic risible phase of the first category is
the ostensible mental inferiority (imperfection of
Sect. 1, Class II. of risible phases) which the fore-
going profession constitutes when the phase of
novelty is reasonably possible of realization; and,
where the phase is not of this description—the
profession then being not an ostensible mental in-
feriority, but a nominal falsehood-useless expendi-
ture of time in making an assertion which no one
could credit (imperfection of Sect. 1, Class I.).
The generic risible phase of the second category
is mental inferiority, of degree short of defective
common-sense, in the shape of voluntary departure
from the region of common-sense in search of
phases, actual, reasonably possible of realization,
or not thus possible, but all beyond the province
of common-sense. This imperfection would also
be shown in those incidents of the first category
where the profession of belief is a nominal false-
hood; but it is, I take it, an imperfection which
would pass unnoted in the presence of the other
imperfection common to those incidents, and on
that account I have not mentioned it except in
this place.
Such generic imperfections as pertain to groups
or sections of these will be specified when the
group or section is illustrated.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
63
Formal presumptive evidence of ingenuity of
the third species, as explained in the preceding
chapter, exists on behalf of every person giving
expression to a phase of circumstantial novelty No.
2, provided such phase is not a mental imperfec-
tion in himself.
The like evidence of ingenuity of the third
species is also (without the phase of novelty
being expressed by them) formally presumable of
persons in general to whom a latent but easily
perceptible phase of novelty is presented, as where
a pun is made and the second signification left
as it almost invariably is-to be discovered by a
trivial exercise of wit on the part of the hearer;
or where an easily discovered identity or anti-
thesis is left unexpressed because thus easily per-
ceptible. One may miss a pun, or an identity or
antithesis easily perceptible to persons in general,
and thus the formal presumptive evidence be
fallacious on that occasion, but it exists never-
theless.
A laugh following a pun, or the presentation
of two phases having an identity or antithesis
between them, would without doubt, we may say,
constitute positive evidence-superseding the for-
mal presumptive evidence of discovery of the
phase of novelty; and perhaps we should regard
the absence of this non-verbal sign of recognition
as an indication that the phase of novelty had
64 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
passed unnoted. In such case the formal pre-
sumptive evidence would be presented only to
persons hearing of the incident, and who were
absent, and could not therefore tell whether the
non-verbal recognition of the phase of novelty by
laughter had been given or not.
I now proceed to my illustrations, the order of
which has been shown in the tabular statement at
the beginning of the chapter.
(1.) PUNS. The events of the occasion-pro-
vided either by ingenuity of the first species, or
by chance, obviating ingenuity-are the form of
words bearing for the moment at least only a
single signification (or rendering) and reference;
the phase of novelty being the second signification
which the sentence-or, if the pun is an imperfect
one, a part only of it-possesses, either as written
or pronounced. The discovery of the second
signification and reference is an exercise of wit
(sub-species of ingenuity of the third species), of
course of a wholly inconsiderable degree. Puns
belong to the category of incidents where the
events of the occasion are not brought into view
till the moment of the presentation of the phase
of novelty, and to that division of the category in
which the phase of novelty is not perceived, if at
all, till a moment after the presentation of the
events of the occasion.
1
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART 1.).
65
The second signification in a pun may be de-
scribed as differing from that in an utterance upon
which a quibble is founded-in that while a quibble
presents a remote and fully sensible particular
interpretation of a general utterance showing no
ambiguity in the words themselves, a pun pre-
sents an ambiguity in one or more words of a
sentence, either as written or pronounced. Per-
fect puns are those in which the sentence is
sensible throughout, in whichever signification
the word or words of ambiguity is, or are, taken;
while imperfect puns are those which make gib-
berish of the sentence in its entirety when the
second signification of the ambiguous word or
words is taken. The requisites for a pun-the
conditions distinguishing a pun from a sentence
containing a word or words of ambiguity merely
-would seem to be as follows. Where only one
word is punned upon, the second signification
must have a reference-as being a repetition or
approximate repetition of it-to some more or
less prominent word in immediate proximity to
the sentence; a reference to some entire sentence,
such as the question in certain riddles, or the first
part of the answer in some others; or a reference
to some non-verbal
non-verbal event of the time; the
sentence when the second signification of the
word of ambiguity is taken being meaningless
as a whole or sensible-the utterance an imperfect
F
1
A
66 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
pun or a perfect one-according to circumstances.
Where two words are punned upon, this connec-
tion of the second signification with some word
or occasion of the moment is not necessary if the
sentence when the second signification of the two
ambiguous words is taken is sensible, but where
the sentence is gibberish the connection is re-
quired.
"2
A word, speech, or non-verbal phase of the des-
cription I have just mentioned-distinct itself
from an event of an occasion, since there is no
phase connected with it which is definitely re-
moved from the ordinary mental range-is what
may be called a "datum or "material" for the
event of the occasion, by reason of its having
some natural association with this latter. It is,
except where the pun is upon two words and is a
sensible sentence, this datum which alone confers
upon any second rendering of an utterance its
claim to one's attention-this alone which gives
it its right to notice. I call it, therefore, an
"indispensable" datum for the event of the occa-
sion, it differing in this respect from material for
an event of an occasion which, it will be seen,
sometimes accompanies the incidents of group
No. 4. The data are commonly presented in the
ordinary course of things, but they may be pro-
vided by ingenuity of the first species.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
67
Puns may be divided into two classes, those
utterances of which it is not imperative, and those
of which it is imperative, on us to seek the second
signification and reference. With the first class a
form of words is brought into a connection with
the data for the pun, which connection is intelli-
gible without our looking for a signification other
than that which the form of words would first
suggest; and thus, since a person ordinarily uses
a separate form of words for each idea he wishes.
to convey, it is not obligatory upon us to inquire
whether a second idea is conveyed in the single
utterance. With the second class the form of
words is connected with the data unintelligibly
as regards the signification first suggested,
whereby the hearer is obliged, if he is to find an
intelligible Connection, to use the small amount of
wit necessary to discover the second signification
and reference.
""
Of instances of the first class we have one in a
pun by Morgan O'Connell. He and a friend were
walking by the river Wey, and O'Connell's friend
took a plant from the river, remarking that it was
a very rare specimen. "It is an out of the way
(Wey) "plant, at any rate," said O'Connell.(¹)
The spoken form of words, "It is an out of
the way plant," is in its immediately obvious
signification brought into intelligible connection
68 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
with the first speaker's remark, and it is conse-
quently not imperative on the hearer to look for
the second signification and reference, “out of the
Wey." The datum for the event of the occasion
is the circumstance of the plant coming from the
river Wey. On a sudden change of weather being
characterized as extraordinary, a certain wit,
Henry Compton, said: "Yes, we have jumped
from winter to summer without a spring."(2)
Here likewise there is no obligation upon one to
look for the second signification of a physical
jump without a physical spring. There being two
words punned upon, and the sentence in its first
signification being sensible, no "data" are re-
quired here.
Puns of the second class are almost all in the
form of riddles. In one description of riddle the
answer constitutes the event of the occasion, while
the question is the datum for the pun.
We have
an illustration in the riddle (which has to be
taken, as regards the answer, in its oral form):
When is a door not a door? Answer: When
it's ajar (a jar.) (3) The first signification of
the answer has no intelligible connection with the
circumstance with which the answer is associated,
viz., the question, and it is thus imperative on one
to look for a second meaning which is intelligibly
connected.
A proportion of those riddles which take the
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART 1.))
69
form of "What is the difference between" (i.e.,
what is the likeness with a difference between)
etc., etc. present puns in the second part of the
answer. Such a riddle as the following gives an
illustration: What is the difference between a cer-
tain sacred cantata of Mendelssohn's and the
encore of a singer in that work? The one is the
Hymn of Praise; and the encore of the singer, the
praise of him. (4) Here, as we think at first only
of the pronoun "him," we do not see the likeness
to the word "hymn;" but an instant later we
recognize the identity which, when pronounced,
him has with hymn.
The data for the event of the occasion are the
words, The Hymn of Praise, together with the
words of inquiry preceding them; these lastly-
mentioned words being, while not absolutely neces-
sary as a part of the data, yet desirable, in order
to give a definite meaning to the words "praise of
hymn" in their second signification-in order to
show the particular person "him" refers to.
Passing from riddles;-in Berlioz's autobiography
he mentions a joke of his when giving a criticism
of La Foie, l'Espérance, et la Charité, a work in
three pieces, by Rossini. "His Hope has deceived
ours; his Faith would never remove mountains;
and as for his Charity, it would never ruin him.”
The second and third sentences belong to group
No. 7, and are there referred to; but the first,
70 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
"His Hope has deceived ours "(5), is a pun. The
word hope has the conventional meaning of a
musical work treating of the subject of hope, and
the strictly literal meaning of the mental quality
itself. The word "ours " means our (the critic's)
musical piece called Hope, and since the critic has
not produced any such work, it is imperative on
one to seek a second signification for the event of
the occasion-the words "has deceived ours" (i.e.,
"our Hope"). If the sentence had run "His
Hope has deceived our hope," or "Hope," the
pun would have been one of the first class, for
then the sentence would have meant, His musical
piece Hope has deceived our anticipations; thus
leaving no obligation on us to seek a second signi-
fication. The datum for the pun is the first two
words of the sentence, viz., "His Hope," which
we understand as meaning the musical piece
because this is the especial circumstance under
consideration at the time.
The remaining puns of which I am aware be-
longing to this second class and not in the shape
of riddles, are brought into association with some
non-verbal incident of the moment. As with the
riddles I have mentioned, the first signification
occurring to us having no intelligible connection
with the incident with which the sentence is asso-
ciated, it is imperative on us to look for a signifi-
cation which has. To write on a chest of tea,
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
71
"Thou teachest" (6), is one of these puns. The
first signification of this is of course the giving
of instruction; but as this has no intelligible con-
nection with a chest of tea, we have to look for a
second signification, which we very easily find in
"Thou tea chest."
Since with these jokes, unlike the riddles I have
quoted, there is no intimation in words that there
is an intelligible connection with the incident
forming the datum for the pun, there is a marked
want of grace in the production of such a pun.
But if we follow Charles Lamb's mode of pro-
ceeding with the above pun in contemplation,
viz., substitute the Latin for Thou teachest, Tu
doces, this defect is obviated, apparently because
the comparative unfamiliarity of Latin makes the
want of intelligible connection in the idea of
teaching less prominent. It is to be noted that
Tu doces in itself constitutes no pun, since it has
only one signification, viz., that of teaching, giving
instruction, information. It is only a particular
English translation of the Latin, viz., Thou
teachest, which gives the pun.
In my preliminary observations in this chapter,
and in my remarks in Chapter V. on Evidence of
ingenuity, I have explained what evidence there
would be of wit in the recipients of a pun. It re-
mains to be mentioned here that the evidence of
wit in the producer of a pun of either of the two
72 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
descriptions of class II. would be positive, from
the circumstance that he could have no rational
object in presenting a form of words with a signi-
fication unintelligibly connected with a given cir-
cumstance, unless it had also another signification
intelligibly connected therewith.
In conclusion it is to be stated that there is, it
appears to me, a risible phase common to this
group of incidents, in the shape of a departure
from right reason (imperfection of Sect. 1, Class
II.) in using one utterance to convey two signifi-
cations.
(2.) VERBAL quibbles. These form two classes,
a joke of the first being effected by the presenta-
tion, with expression, of a particular interpreta-
tion of general language other than that which
common-sense points to; the general utterance
constituting the event of the occasion, and the
remote particular interpretation the phase of
novelty. A quibble of the second class is made by
producing a general utterance to which the
principles of common-sense, independently of
special collateral circumstances, would assign, and
permanently assign, one particular meaning (which
accordingly is the one which at first occurs to the
mind of the hearer or reader), but another parti-
cular meaning of which, evidently representing
the real facts of the case, is, without its being ex-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
73
pressed in words, quickly revealed by special col-
lateral circumstances attending the event of the
occasion-the general utterance. This second
class might be called inverted quibbles, the un-
qualified term being reserved for the first and more
ordinary class. Illustration of these inverted
quibbles will be given in a special category at the
end of Part II. of this chapter, together with one
or two jokes of group No. 7, in which a like in-
version of the usual process of joking is seen; and
it will be enough here to mention that the inverted
quibbles produce the usual falsification of a momen-
tary-though with this class not more than momen-
tary-instinctive judgment in the hearer or reader;
and that their whole substantial value is neces-
sarily due to ingenuity of the first species-due to
the difficulty of discovery of the event of the occa-
sion-, a wholly trivial exercise of wit being all that
is needed for the discovery of the phase of novelty.
Reverting to the ordinary class of quibble,-the
generic imperfections attending this class, all of
which are mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, are, (1) the above-mentioned falsification
of judgment-common to all incidents with phases
of novelty of special connection with the events of
the occasion-in the recipient of the quibble; (2) a
mental inferiority, of degree short of defective
common-sense, exhibited by the producer of the
phase of novelty in respect of the departure from
74 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
the region of common-sense involved in his dis-
covery and presentation of the remote interpreta-
tion; while (3) in a few instances the jester might
profess misapprehension of the particular inter-
pretation intended by the general utterance-pro-
fess belief in the full propriety of the presentation
of the remote phase, a profession which, as I have
said, is an exhibition of defective common-sense.
This profession, however, though necessary in
order to give an excuse for the production of
various phases of novelty not contained in the
events of the occasion, is not thus necessary with
quibbles of any value; nothing being needed as an
excuse for these beyond one or other of the two
conditions, shortly to be mentioned, which give
the phase of novelty an appreciable value.
With most quibbles the event of the occasion-
the general utterance-is provided in the ordinary
course of things, thus leaving the wit, much or
little, exercised in discovering the remote parti-
cular interpretation, the only item of ingenuity in
the incident. A general utterance, however, as
observed in Chapter V., may of course be provided
by special search-ingenuity of the first species.
To this ingenuity necessarily were due certain
utterances of the old Grecian oracles, which were
devised for the. especial purpose of including
particular interpretations indicating opposite con-
tingencies.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
75
There are two conditions, one or other of which
is necessary to give a quibble of this first and
ordinary class a definite degree of appreciable
value (a generic appreciable value we may call it)
implying a definite degree of difficulty of discovery;
thus distinguishing the joke from the mere
indiscriminate production of any remote phase.
The first is, the phase of novelty being either
diametrically opposed to the common-sense
particular interpretation, thus completely revers-
ing the situation; or being a complete negation
of the common-sense phase; with, at the same
time, no departure from fact, or reasonably
possible fact. The second condition is the phase
being a fundamentally different one from the
common-sense interpretation, and made a repre-
sentation of fact in virtue of some occasional
circumstance accompanying the general expres-
sion and in open evidence when that is produced;
while not being a statement of fact if the general
expression were produced under ordinary circum-
stances. This occasional circumstance I should
"concomitant and incidental" event of the
call a
occasion.
Taking illustration, we have a reversal of the
situation, by what is a reasonably probable state-
ment of fact, in a rejoinder made to Louis the
Fourteenth by one of his officers, who had been
7
76 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
importuning him for promotion. The King,
annoyed at his persistence, had said, "That is
one of the most troublesome officers in my
dominions." "That, sire," said the officer,
overhearing him, " is precisely what your
Majesty's enemies say of me." (7) The common-
sense interpretation of the King's remark is that
of trouble given to him—a discredit to the officer;
while the latter presents the idea of trouble given
to the enemy-a certain reversal of the imputation
upon him.
Someone, apropos of the asserted dulness of
some sea-side town, asks, "Can't you have any
fun there?" and receives the answer, "Such fun
as you may take with you." (8) The first speaker's
words comprehend fun from whatever source it
comes, and thus present two particular interpre-
tations, one indicating fun for which a person is
not wholly dependent on himself, and the other,
fun for which he is thus dependent. 'The
common-sense interpretation is of course the
former. The phase of novelty is of course one
of those effecting a negation of the situation pre-
sented by the common-sense interpretation.
If we transpose the joke by making the answer,
"Oh yes; but you must take it with you," (") we
have a somewhat exceptional form of quibble, the
assent given in the first part of the answer form-
ing part of the general expression, and the words
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
77
"but you must take it with you" constituting
the phase of novelty. To explain the form of the
joke in other terms, the question and the first part
of the answer constitute an affirmation that fun is
to be had in the town-a general expression-,
and the rest of the answer a remote particular
interpretation thereof.
If, again, we took as the answer, or rather
counter-inquiry, "You mean, I suppose, such
fun as you may take with you," (10) we should
have an illustration of the phase of novelty being
accompanied by a profession of belief in its full
propriety of presentation (it being not fully
appropriate of presentation because not the
common-sense interpretation), although, as ex-
plained, the profession is not necessary in order
to obtain an excuse for the joke.
In Mr. Louis Engel's book of reminiscences,
From Mozart to Mario, there is a story of a lady who
said to a guest for whom she had provided a very
insufficient dinner, "I have been very happy to
see you here, my dear sir; when will you do me
the honour to dine with me again?" "Now, at
once," he replied, to her amazement. (11) In-
cluded though this very evening is in the lady's
inquiry, the idea of taking it for another dinner
is particularly difficult of discovery, the whole
tenor of one's experience directing the mind to the
thought of some other day. The "concomitant
78 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
and incidental" event is, of course, the insufficient
dinner.
There are two very prominent occasional
imperfections exhibited in this incident; parsi-
mony exposed in the lady-imperfection in the
shape of loss of dignity, taking the particular form
of meanness—and a still more noticeable imper-
fection in the guest-also in the shape of loss of
dignity, in the particular form of discourtesy-in
his alluding to the lady's defect.
There is a quibble in the remark made by a
votary of Shelley on hearing Mr. Matthew
Arnold's prediction that the greater part of
Shelley's poetry would not stand the wear and
tear of time. Applying, or rather improperly ex-
tending, this prediction to the Ode to a skylark,
the believer in Shelley imagines the Ode thus
worn down by time to, say, the seventeenth stanza,
and represented by that stanza in the anthologies
of the future; when in another sense than the
poet's, we may "look before and after, and pine
for what is not."(12) The event of the occasion
is the lines just quoted, the "concomitant and
incidental" event being Mr. Arnold's prophecy as
regards Shelley's poetry in general. An excep-
tional feature in this joke, giving it some special
value, is that there are two remote phases
connected with two general expressions, both
remote phases relating to the same process, viz.,
;
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
79
the prospect retrospect and yearning in the
material, not mental, sense.
This is one of those incidents, sometimes
met with, where the event of the occasion,
although in contemplation by the joker before
he discovered the phase of novelty, is only
placed before persons in general at the moment
the phase of novelty is placed before them.
This circumstance of course is merely due to
literary requirements or considerations, and in no
way concerns the value of the joke, as we see if
we alter the form of the joke so as to produce the
primary event, the general expression, in evidence
before people previously to producing the phase
of novelty. For instance, wording it thus:
Does Mr. Arnold tell us that the author of the
"Prometheus," the "Adonais," the lines in the
Skylark Ode, "We look before and after, and
pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter with
some pain is fraught: Our sweetest songs are
those that tell of saddest thought."-That the
writer of these will have the greater part of his
poetry worn down by time? Here persons in
general have the primary event before them
without the remote phase, just as the other had;
and the same difficulty any amateur or profes-
sional joker would have with the general expression
in contemplation, without the remote phase, he
would have.
80 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
As to the mode in which the primary event
of the occasion came before the joker, it will be
observed that it was not presented, as with the
previous illustrations, at first hand; he having at
first before him only Mr. Arnold's prediction that
Shelley's poetry in general would be worn down
by time, whence his thoughts travelled to the
lines in the Skylark, lines discovered by ingenuity
of the first species (wholly inconsiderable), if he
was looking for an opportunity for a joke; in the
ordinary course of things, if he was not at that
moment seeking one.
There is a very noticeable occasional imperfec-
tion here in the shape of an inferior (permanent)
production by the compiler of the anthology
(imperfection of Sect. I., Class II.); a single stanza
in a short lyric being in an anthology a peculiarly
unsatisfactory selection to make.
It remains to be mentioned (apart from the
circumstance-already recognized, and which has
nothing to do with our analysis of the joke-that
Mr. Arnold doubtless intended this lyric as one of
the exceptions to his condemnation) that it is only
an interpretation of the letter of Mr. Arnold's
prediction which presents a portion of a short
lyric standing, while the rest has been worn away
by time: the spirit of his words is of course the
rejection of large masses of poetry en bloc, and the
retention of just a few of such.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
81
Where convention allows to a word or expres-
sion a precise meaning different to its literal one,
while retaining the fundamental identity, the
presentation of the literal meaning just after the
word or expression has been employed under
circumstances pointing to the conventional mean-
ing, would form a quibble. Thus, to refer to the
joke by Berlioz already quoted (see No. 5), a trio
of quibbles would be made by anyone who, after
a reference to Rossini's Faith, Hope, and Charity,
had been made under circumstances pointing to
the musical piece, had inquired if his mental and
moral qualities were referred to. These, of course,
would be quibbles without either of the conditions
of appreciable value.
(3.) METAPHORS and idioms treated from the
risible point of view. A metaphor-a substitution
of one expression for another in virtue of some
general and prominent point of similarity between
the two--is, literally regarded, though convention
ignores that aspect, either a nonsensical statement
or a manifestly incredible one, according to
whether the expression construed in its literal
meaning is conceivable or not. To speak of a
person being one's sun or guiding star is nonsense,
while to talk of a souvenir speaking to one of an
absent friend, or to refer to a person as flying
along the ground, are, where the propositions are
G
82 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
not made inconceivable by the evidence of the
senses, manifestly incredible statements, while yet
presenting conceivable propositions.
The similarity between the above metaphors
and the persons or proceedings to which they are
applied, may be described as lying in the common
properties respectively of giving pleasure in some
form, guidance in some form, reminiscence in
some manner, and showing great rapidity of move-
ment in some degree.
Idioms, of which slang terms constitute a
variety, are, if literally considered, nonsense,
nominal falsehoods, or, as with the expression
"To have a mind to do something," merely lax
phraseology. For a person to say he is "up a tree"
- a conventional expression for being in money
difficulties—when he is standing on the ground,
is a nonsensical statement, being contradicted by
ocular evidence; while to speak of having "taken
his hook," or "struck his tent," both conventional
terms for leaving a place, or to apply the phrase,
up a tree," to a past state of financial difficulty,
are nominal falsehoods.
66
Before the application of my theory to the
risible treatment of metaphors is stated, a few
remarks might be made respecting the features in
a metaphor which are not possessed or shown by
the object or proceeding for which it is substi-
tuted; (its dissimilar and subordinate features),
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
83
considered in reference to the legitimate, the
conventionally intended mode of regarding these
figurative expressions.
A metaphor is only employed for the purpose of
noticing-only for the sake of-one, viz., the
most prominent feature in the actual proceeding
or object we wish to describe, which prominent
feature is also the most prominent one in the
metaphor. Hence it is necessary, in order for the
metaphor to be of use, that the less prominent,
the dissimilar features or phases of it should not
be obtruded upon our notice through any cause.
And in themselves they are not obtrusive, if the
metaphor is used under ordinary circumstances,
since, unless we made special search, we should
think of them only in their average aspect, an
aspect in no way remarkable. (This average
aspect is thus the one the dissimilar feature
presents of its own accord under ordinary
circumstances of the use of the metaphor.)
Whence these dissimilar features, under wholly
norinal conditions of the serious use and con-
sideration of the metaphor-viz., the ordinary
circumstances of use of the expression by the
presenter, and the absence of special search
for exceptional aspects of dissimilar features by
the recipient-take a subordinate place; and
one is naturally enabled to ignore them
altogether, from the time when he first be-
84 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
誊
​came accustomed to these figures of speech.
Under extra-ordinary circumstances of the use of
the metaphor a dissimilar feature either assumes
in consequence an intrinsic exceptional aspect, or
receives from such circumstances an extrinsic one,
and then these are the aspects it presents of its
own accord. These aspects due to extra-ordinary
circumstances make a legitimate claim upon our
notice (though we may often pass them unper-
ceived) as being both remarkable, from their excep-
tionality, and presented by the dissimilar feature
in the wholly natural course of things, thus giving
more or less propriety to the joke which the
bringing them forward constitutes, though this by
no means implies that the joke is always good
enough to be worth producing.
To illustrate these remarks I will take two
instances; the first one being in illustration solely
of an exceptional aspect due to the first of the
two causes, viz., special search, (for I know of no
extra-ordinary circumstances by which this
metaphor might be accompanied, causing a dis-
similar feature to assume an intrinsic exceptional
aspect, or conferring upon it an extrinsic one).
The second instance will give illustrations both
of exceptional aspects provided by special search,
there being no extra-ordinary circumstances
causing the features to present such aspects of
their own accord; and of those presented of their
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
85
own accord by the dissimilar features, by reason
of extra-ordinary circumstances, viz., intrinsic
exceptional aspects which these features assume
in consequence of the attendant circumstances,
and extrinsic exceptional aspects which they
receive from them.
(1.) We have the metaphorical expression, the
handwriting of Nature, as when we say, Nature
has written honest man, or villain, or death, upon
a person's face; the first of which I take for
illustration. The metaphorical expression is the
indication of character by manual penmanship,
while the actual process for which the figure of
speech is substituted is the indication of character
by facial expression; the prominent and common
or identical feature being the manifestation of
character, irrespective of particular means. The
precise means which the metaphorical expression
presents, viz., manual penmanship, a dissimilar
feature, take (means being of less importance than
ends in their natural proportions) a subordinate
place, in the aspect they present of themselves.
For, there being no extra-ordinary circumstances
accompanying the metaphor, the dissimilar
feature presents of its own accord merely
its ordinary aspect, of average writing with an
ordinary pen, a phase in no wise remarkable.
But if, making special search, we think of the
exceptional aspect of writing with a bad pen, we
86 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
have the dissimilar feature of manual penmanship
disputing prominence with the feature of identity,
and thus destroying the use of the metaphor as a
figure of speech.
And it need scarcely be said, the production of
the exceptional aspect at this cost of losing the use
of the metaphor as a figure of speech, is only
justified, only possesses any propriety, when some
substantial counter object is gained thereby.
(2.) A person, in view of a long absence from
an intimate friend, might give him a ring, and
say, "It will speak to you of me when we are
absent from each other." The prominent and
identical feature here is reminding in general,
irrespective of particular means; the precise
means of reminding presented in the metaphor
being the dissimilar feature of vocal speech. And,
means being of less importance than ends in their
natural proportions, the dissimilar feature takes a
subordinate place if wholly normal conditions
obtain in connection with the metaphor, viz., the
absence of extra-ordinary circumstances of use,
and the recipient's making no special search for
exceptional aspects. The ordinary circumstances
of use of the expression are the presumption that
the ring will be worn on the finger, while the
aspect the feature of vocal speech presents of its
own accord is speech in an ordinary manner in
every respect.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
87
As I have said, the two causes of prominence
of a dissimilar feature can be illustrated with this
metaphor. Taking the first, viz., the production
of an exceptional aspect through special search,
irrespective of the presence of any extra-ordinary
circumstances, and consequently always an
intrinsic aspect, we should have an instance in the
production of the idea of the ring shouting, or
another in that of its speaking in a whisper,
another in hoarseness, etc., etc.; the idea thus,
because a more or less remarkable dissimilar
phase, destroying the use of the metaphor as a
figure of speech, since it disputes prominence
with the feature of similarity. The second cause
of prominence, we have seen, is the presence of
extra-ordinary circumstances of use of the
expression, causing the dissimilar feature to
assume an intrinsic aspect, or conferring upon it
an extrinsic one, giving either aspect a more or
less legitimate claim upon our notice, because
both remarkable from its exceptionality, and pre-
sented in the wholly natural course of things.
We should have an intrinsic aspect assumed, if,
instead of the metaphorical expression being
accompanied by the understanding on both sides
that during the absence of the friends from each
other the ring would be on the owner's finger, the
expression was associated on the occasion with the
extra-ordinary circumstance of evidence that it
*
88 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
might reasonably be supposed to be at a distance
from the owner, in consequence of which circum-
stance the vocal speech would assume the intrinsic
exceptional aspect of a shout if it was to be an
effectual reminder of the donor. This same
extra-ordinary circumstance of use gives an illus-
tration of an extrinsic exceptional aspect conferred;
viz., the ring, while presenting its average aspect
intrinsically, viz., speaking in an ordinary tone,
yet giving an ineffectual reminder, on account of
the distance. These likewise, as more or less
remarkable aspects, destroy the serious use of the
metaphor, through their prominence.
The foregoing remarks, then, will show us, by
implication when not explicit statements, that
there are two grades of jokes on metaphors-two
grades of these productions of exceptional
aspects of dissimilar features. Jokes of the
first are the totally worthless and senseless
production of the exceptional aspects which
anyone can discover without the slightest diffi-
culty on merely considering a metaphor liter-
ally, whensoever and wheresoever he meets it.
Jokes of the second have, while not necessarily
being worth producing, more or less propriety of
production; these being of two descriptions.
Firstly comes the production of the exceptional
aspects (always intrinsic) which, while not being
presented to our notice by the dissimilar feature
1
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
89
of its own accord there being no extra-ordinary
circumstances accompanying the use of the meta-
phor-attain a substantial object for the producer;
these, it would seem, always being jokes worth
making. And secondly, the production of the
exceptional aspects, intrinsic or extrinsic, which
the dissimilar feature presents to our notice of its
own accord, by reason of extra-ordinary circum-
stances of use of the metaphor-aspects which
have more or less claim to attention because both
remarkable and presented in the wholly natural
course of things. While these latter are divided
into jokes which are worth producing, and those
which, though having more or less propriety of
production, are yet not good enough to compen-
sate for the loss of the serious use of the metaphor.
I can now pass to the discussion exclusively of
the risible treatment of metaphors and idioms.
I shall state in due course more categorically the
conditions giving a joke of this group propriety
of production, but I may at once mention that
they are substantially the same as those giving a
definite appreciable value to the quibbles I have
illustrated. The like "concomitant and incidental
events of the occasion" which sometimes accom-
pany quibbles, accompany a large proportion of
jokes on metaphors, (such events being here, the
"extra-ordinary circumstances of use" of which I
have just spoken); though it would seem there
•
90 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
1
are none such on the occasions of jokes on
idioms.
As regards idioms from the conventional, the
orthodox, point of view; since these present no
subordinate dissimilar features, nothing need be said
of them here, beyond mentioning that with idioms
jokes which are difficult of discovery, i.e., worth
production, would seem to lie in one direction only,
whereas with metaphors they lie in more than one.
A metaphorical or an idiomatic expression,
possessing as it does the two interpretations of
the conventional and the literal,* is a general
expression, one particular interpretation of which,
viz., the conventional, occurs to the mind ordi-
narily when the expression is used; and thus the
notice of the expression in its literal sense may
be
considered a species of verbal quibble, the difficulty
of discovery of the phase of novelty, however, being
virtually nil, it being at hand for anyone who chose
to bestow a moment's thought upon the matter.
Being though these notices are of the nature
of verbal quibbles, I have nevertheless not des-
cribed them as such in my classification, but for
the sake of convenience have reserved the term
verbal quibble for plays upon general utterances
in the commoner sense of this latter expression.
* A literal interpretation of a metaphor would not, as a rule,.
express more than one of its dissimilar features, but it could of
course be made to specify an indefinite number.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
91
As with the verbal quibbles just illustrated, so
in substantially the same way with metaphors
treated risibly, for the joke to have such definite
degree of appreciable value as to give it propriety
of production (though this does not necessarily
make it worth producing) one or other of two
conditions must be fulfilled. (1.) The presenta-
tion of the remote phase-here always an in-
trinsic exceptional aspect of the dissimilar feature
-must (as in No. 13) effect a negation-a destruc-
tion-of the situation ordinarily suggested by the
metaphorical expression; or it would be more
correct to say, must traverse the real statement
implied by the expression. With these jokes, of
which there must be a very small number, the
propriety of production of the joke is not
because of the dissimilar feature presenting
the exceptional aspect of its own accord, in
consequence of extra-ordinary circumstances ac-
companying the use of the metaphor, for there
are no such circumstances: it is received because
the production attains the substantial end of
the above negation or contradiction. (2.) The
metaphorical expression must be accompanied
by, and reference must be made to (along
with or before the production of the phase of
novelty-the dissimilar feature in an ex-
ceptional aspect), those extra-ordinary circum-
stances which cause the phase to assume an
92 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
intrinsic exceptional aspect or confer upon it an
extrinsic one. The reason why fulfilment of this
condition gives propriety to the production of the
dissimilar feature is that an exceptional aspect
which is due to the wholly natural course of
things has obviously some claim to notice ;
though it depends on circumstances whether the
claim is strong enough to be worth one's calling
attention to the matter-strong enough to
constitute the notice of the exceptionality of
aspect a joke worth producing.
The extra-ordinary circumstances, as I have
said, form a concomitant and incidental event of
the occasion, the metaphorical expression be-
coming then describable as the permanent (or
primary) event.
Proceeding to illustration ;-Douglas Jerrold, on
someone observing that Nature had written
honest man upon a certain person's face, replied,
“Then she must have had a very bad pen;" (13)
thus, without leaving the other's metaphor,
effecting a negation of the situation presented by
the expression, a denial of the reality of the idea.
As I have said, in speaking of the feature of
identity and the dissimilar features of this same
metaphor in connection with the legitimate, the
conventionally intended use of these expressions,
the main circumstance of indication of character,
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
93
irrespective of particular means, is the feature of
identity, and ordinarily (i.e., without special
search being made for an exceptional aspect of a
dissimilar feature), the one prominent feature, in
the metaphor; the precise means of indication
presented in the metaphor, (manual penmanship,
a dissimilar feature) taking a subordinate place, in
the aspect the feature presents of itself, viz.: of
ordinary writing with an average pen. Here,
however, through special search, an exceptional
aspect, that of a bad pen, is produced, destroying
the use of the metaphor, since we have a dis-
similar feature disputing prominence, by reason
of its exceptional aspect, with the feature of
identity; this loss, however, being of course no
serious consideration by the side of a joke like
this.
I now take illustrations where the expressions
are accompanied by extra-ordinary circumstances,
forming concomitant and incidental events of the
occasion; the metaphorical expression [then be-
coming describable as the permanent (or primary)
event.
We may put in a more specific form a joke
already given. At the parting of two friends,
one gives the other a ring, which "should speak
to him of the donor when they were absent from
each other," and the receiver of the gift, or
94 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
some third party, says, "Well, perhaps so; but it
will have to speak up, considering the distance
to the nearest pawnbroker's " (14).
The more general features of this joke we have
already seen, and that an extrinsic exceptionality
would be received by the dissimilar feature of
vocal speech if we altered the version here given
to the idea of the ring speaking in an ordinary
tone, with the result of the reminder being
necessarily ineffectual. I will now refer to such
less general characteristics as the joke shows.
The concomitant and incidental event which
the extra-ordinary circumstances constitute is, it
will be noted, not expressed before, but at the
same time as, the production of the phase of
novelty (the literal interpretation with the dis-
similar feature in an exceptional aspect). This
does not affect the value of the joke, as I think
will be evident if we suppose the concomitant
event expressed before the production of the
phase of novelty, as by some one saying, “You
had better not give him the ring: he would only
pawn it.". There would be much the same
difficulty in noting that there would be this ex-
ceptional aspect presented, as material for a joke.
The idea of a ring actually speaking presents
imperfection of Sect. V., Class II. (ideal procedure
unsuited to its nature by an inanimate object),
but when the speech is a shout, an extra magni-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
95
tude is given to the imperfection, by reason of a
loud tone for so small an object being especially
unsuitable.
If a person were in very hot weather to employ
the sun in metaphorical reference to another, it
might with more or less propriety be remarked,
“We don't want two suns in this weather." (15)
The feature of similarity, and the only prominent
one under ordinary circumstances of the use of
the metaphor, may I suppose be described as the
general pleasure emanating from a brilliant and
luminous object, the physical warmth being a dis-
similar and ordinarily subordinate phase. It is
an extrinsic exceptionality which the dissimilar
feature shows, as being unwelcome at the time,
instead of welcome.
The concomitant event (the spell of hot weather)
is not expressed in words until the time of the
production of the phase of novelty (the literal
interpretation of a second solar body, with a dis-
similar feature in an exceptional aspect), but it
was of course in evidence when the metaphor was
used.
Jokes upon idioms of course present, like those
on metaphors, two grades, viz., the mere worthless
jocularities due to no more than the considera-
tion of the expressions literally, independent of
any question of special value from particular oc-
96 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
casions, and those which have such value. There
are only, I think, two descriptions of these latter;
the first being those literal renderings which,
when presented, effect a destruction of some pre-
sumably unwarranted position of superiority which
a person has claimed for himself and expressed in
idiomatic language; and the second description,
the production of those literal interpretations
which are in diametrical opposition to the actual
facts of the case, and on that account are to a
certain extent worth notice.
The first of these is illustrated in one of
Lamb's jokes. Some one had asserted that he
could have written like Shakespeare if he had had
a mind to (conventionally, a disposition or inclina-
tion to); and Lamb observed on this, "So you
see all that is wanting is the mind." (15a)
Taking the other class,-a clerk in a public
office in days when punctuality to the minute was
considered something creditable, arrives duly to
the minute and finds a fellow clerk of the same
department as punctual as himself. "Our de-
partment's coming out grandly," says the first.
Coming in," says the other, in correction. (15b)
66
(4) PHASES presenting an identity or antithesis
between them. An identity or antithesis is of
course an abstract phase, requiring two concrete
phases-twofold events of the occasion-to fur-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART 1.).
97
nish it.
While with identities there are all
degrees of particularity, these differences are not
found in antitheses, consisting as an antithesis
does of the relations between positive and nega-
tive or approximately negative characteristics, or
of a diametrical opposition between characteris-
tics. There is, I take it, an exercise of wit in any
apprehension of an identity or antithesis (whether
the events of the occasion are expressed in such a
manner as to apprise us that there is some identity
or antithesis between them, to be sought for; or
whether there is no such indication, and we are
left to make the discovery unaided), by reason of
our apprehending the two concrete phases in their
individual characteristics only, for the moment;
the wit being infinitesimal when the events of the
occasion are so expressed as to indicate the pre-
sence of some identity or antithesis, and of vary-
ing degrees, from the wholly trivial upwards,
where the indication is not made.
While, however, every perception of an identity
or antithesis is an exercise of wit on this account,
many of these phases of novelty would not be in the
least worth attention. The condition which gives
the phase of novelty that small degree of value
necessary to repay attention (further, i.e., appre-
ciable value depending upon other circumstances)
would seem to be the circumstance of both of the
events of the occasion having an occasional or
H
98 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
transitory character, in virtue of being actualities
and in the temporal order of things. Thus if an
employer were to say of his clerk, "His attend-
ance at the office is as satisfactory to me as a
heavy loss of money would be unsatisfactory,"
the permanency of character of the latter idea
would preclude the antithesis from having enough
value to repay attention. But if he were to sub-
stitute "his fellow clerk's attendance ”
as the
contrasted phase, he would present an event of an
occasional character, making the contrast worth
notice. Again, if one said, So-and-so's hands are
as white as jet is black, the notice of the anti-
thesis would be worthless, because the second
event, the blackness of jet, is in the permanent
order of things. Whereas if he said, His hands
are as white as his companion's are black, we
have both events of the occasion of a transitory
character.
An identity or antithesis, being a relation be-
tween two ideas, is not a phase which can exist
apart from two ideas distinct from it, and there-
fore it cannot receive circumstantial novelty from
these, implied as they are in its existence. It is,
however, only abstract phases with which the idea
of identity or antithesis is necessarily connected,
and which cannot give it circumstantial novelty.
When concrete phases present an identity or anti-
thesis between them, the phase of relation receives
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
99
circumstantial novelty alike with the remote
phases in other groups.
The only generic risible phase on the apprehen-
sion of an identity or antithesis is the falsification
of the instinctive judgment that the phases im-
mediately perceptible on the presentation of the
events of the occasion (viz., the two phases which
these two events constitute) are the only phases
presented. This judgment, however, is only an
ideal one on those occasions-already mentioned
-when the events of the occasion are expressed
in such a manner as to indicate the presence of
some identity or antithesis; such judgment being
the conclusion-which I take it would necessarily
be presented to us in idea-formed by some person
or persons—oneself or others-on an imaginary oc-
casion of their having the events presented to them,
expressed, however, in some other manner than
the particular modes which indicate the presence
of an identity or antithesis. It would, too, it
seems to me, be only on these imaginary occasions
that the identity or antithesis between phases
expressed on the actual occasion of their presen-
tation in the manner I am speaking of, would
be definitely removed from the ordinary mental
range, and consequently only in virtue of these
imaginary occasions that it constitutes a phase of
circumstantial novelty No. 2. It is precisely be-
cause this mode of expressing the events of the
Uerk
100 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
occasion is only an incidental, not, as with similes,
a necessary manner of presenting them, that we
imagine to ourselves some one having them pre-
sented to him in some general manner not indi-
cating the presence of the phase of novelty.
As to the modes of this indication,—it would
be done in so many words when such phraseology
was employed as "We may note an identity" or
"an antithesis," as the case may be, "between,'
etc., etc. Such negative expressions as "without,"
"no," etc., are of course indications of antitheses.
In such a case as a person's suggesting one cir-
cumstance in preference to another as a cause of
some phenomenon-the phase of novelty here being
of course an identity-there is something more
than the indication of the presence of some
identity the particular identity itself is pointed
out (see No. 16).
The occasions on which the presence of a
phase of novelty is not indicated are, it would
seem, those where literary considerations are
adverse to the indication, and the phase is more
or less easy of perception. And of such perception,
as stated in Chapter V., there is formal presump-
tive evidence on behalf of the persons to whom
they are presented.
There are two specialities, one or other of which
attaches on occasion to one or both of the phases
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
101
containing an identity between them, and each
of which, indicating as it does ingenuity of the
first species, gives some appreciable value to the
incident. The first of these specialities consists
in one or each of the events of the occasion being
a particular phase † of some more general phase
which has been previously forthcoming. The
other consists in one or each of the events of
the occasion, or it may be one of the more general
phases just mentioned-being forthcoming, not
from the general field of ideas (in the ordinary
course of events, or by ingenuity of the first
species), but through the medium of some phase
which, while not in itself containing an identity
with another, has some natural association with
a phase which does, or, for the process is not always
limited to a single transition, with a phase in its
turn naturally associated with a third, which pos-
sesses the identity. These phases from which an
event of the occasion is thus evolved (as I have men-
tioned, by ingenuity of the first species), I call, as
*The second of these specialities applies also to the category
of antitheses, but I am not able to produce any instances of the
first in that category.
+ The discovery of the particular phase is ingenuity of the first
species, not the third, because the particular phase is not
definitely removed from the ordinary mental range. For, unlike
quibbles and puns, there is here no one particular of a general
sentence or word understood to the exclusion of the rest, but all
alike are definitely presented in the presentation of the general
phase.
102 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
stated in treating of puns, "data" or "material"
for events of the occasion; in this group, how-
ever, not indispensable data, since, given a
difference of circumstances, the event-or the two
events-might be produced without the presence
of the datum or data. The datum is provided,
according to circumstances, in the ordinary course
of things, or by ingenuity of the first species. In
one instance (No. 16), it will be seen, a process of
wit also takes place before the event of the
occasion is forthcoming.
Proceeding to illustration, there is a story of
two of the ancient sages engaging in a mental
contemplation of the world, with the result that
one was moved to tears by the phenomenon and
the other to laughter. My illustration is provided
by the first of these two events in conjunction
with the remark, "The sage and the world!" (in
quotation of the title by which the anecdote may
be called). "Perhaps sage and onions was the
real combination that caused the tears" (16).
The two events of the occasion are the idea
of a sage weeping at contemplation of the world,
and the idea of that person in close association
with onions, a combination which would also
result in tears. The identity is, of course, the
common power to cause tears in the philosopher
which the contemplation of the world is asserted
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
103
by the anecdote to have possessed, and which
onions, we know, if placed near the eyes would
possess.
The whole substantial value of this joke lies in
the evolution, mainly by ingenuity of the first
species, of the second event of the occasion, viz.,
sage (in the sense of philosopher) and onions,
from data or material for such event furnished in
the word sage, having as that word has a two-
fold signification. The first item of ingenuity (of
the first species), viz., the notice of the second
signification of the word sage, is of the slightest,
if indeed the second signification is not suggested
to the mind, thus obviating any exercise of
ingenuity. A similarly trivial exercise of ingenuity
(of the first species) would discover the idea of the
frequent concomitant of the herb, though this
idea, too, might not improbably be suggested, and
ingenuity obviated. The third stage is reached by
wit, for the expression, sage and onions, constitutes
a pun, the second signification of which is
philosopher and onions; and it is, I imagine, this
step which would form the most difficult part of
the evolution. Not being uttered aloud, but
being merely a form of words passing across the
mind, the words sage and onions would not make
the special call for scrutiny which a pun actually
expressed would make, and thus the second
signification, philosopher and onions, might easily
104 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
escape notice. When, however, the pun is noted
the joker has arrived at the second event of the
occasion. The greater proportion of the whole
ingenuity required for the joke has now been
exercised, but the same absence (for the inventor
of the joke) of actual expression, which as we
have seen would give difficulty to the notice of
the pun in "sage and onions," would make it
less easy to discover the identity between the
events of the occasion than it would be after the
special call for scrutiny which would be made
where the second event was actually expressed.
It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to point out
that the word "sage," where we first meet it,
viz., in the anecdote, unsupplemented by the
remark necessary for the joke, does not make the
passage a pun, because the story is not connected
with any allusion to the herb sage; the word
merely forms by itself an expression with a second
rendering. When we meet the word a second
time, viz., in the supplementary sentence, the
words sage and onions form a pun, because the
second signification of sage, viz., philosopher, is
an idea shortly before presented to us.
We have both events evolved from data for
them, in the latter part of the following extract
containing a hit at the custom of furnishing
houses in the Queen Anne style, and the practice
of hanging plates on the walls; the data or
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
105
material being (1) the idea of Queen Anne, and
(2) a soup tureen on the wall, with two ladles
above it. "But a closer inspection" (of one of
these houses) "showed that we were by no means
altogether on common ground with him " (the
owner), "and that he had a life in the past which
we could not share. The Chippendale chairs
and the old blue china plainly showed the gulf
between us; and in our first hasty glance at the
soup tureen on the wall, with the two ladles
above it, our confused imagination presented to
us a death's head and cross-bones, as a sort of
æsthetic crown and completion of the idea of
mortality pervading the room, and associated with
the memory of the late Queen Anne " (17).
From the idea of Queen Anne furniture (datum
No. 1) there is a natural transition to the familiar
saying, "Queen Anne's dead"-an idea of mor-
tality-; while at a moderate distance a soup tureen
against a wall, with two ladles above it, (datum
No. 2), would have more or less resemblance to a
death's head and cross-bones. There is thus
furnished a more or less recondite correspon-
dence between the Queen Anne furniture and
the soup tureen and ladles, conveying, as each
does, through a natural association or transition
of ideas, an idea of mortality.
The soup tureen is of course an unreal exaggera-
tion of the fashion of hanging plates on walls.
106 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
In the next illustration the second event of the
occasion is evolved from data, or material, for it;
while the first is a particular phase of a more
general phase previously presented. The passage
is from A Recoiling Vengeance, by Mr. Frank
Barrett. "Now the cocoanut was not a bad sort
of fellow
Some people thought he was hard
and dry all through, but they were mistaken, for
there was some milk inside him, and it was the
milk of human kindness" (18).
Speaking first of the evolutionary process by
which we reach the second event of the occasion,
we first have the asserted belief of certain persons
that the cocoanut was hard and dry, taking that
expression in the sense of moral hardness and
dryness. A natural evolution from the expres-
sion of this belief is the presentation of the
contrary idea, viz., that of the cocoanut being of a
kind disposition. From this we are able to pro-
ceed to the metaphorical expression for kindness
of disposition, viz., the milk of human kindness,
giving us the second event of the occasion.
The other event of the occasion is the particular
phase, the milk in a cocoanut, embraced in the
more general phase, previously presented, of the
cocoanut entire.
There is a decided license, which deducts from
the value of the incident, and which we instinc-
tively allow for in our estimate of its value, in
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
107
asserting the cocoanut's possession of a "human ”
quality. And further, as the words run there is
mention of but one kind of milk, viz., the meta-
phorical, so that it is only in effect-only by
suggestion-that there are presented the two
phases requisite for this group of incidents, viz.
the material milk and the metaphorical, with a
general identity between them.
•
There is an identity between a sluggard, with
his slothful tendencies, and procedure which a
person appointed arbiter of a dispute may take
(the appointment being the "datum" for the
second event), viz., the sluggard taking a special
measure of sleep, and the arbiter doing the same
thing (19); though their objects are different,
the one taking the extra sleep in indulgence of his
vice, and the other because sleeping upon a matter
often secures better deliberation. The identity is
formal only, not substantial, being in virtue of the
process of deferring final consideration of a matter
till after one's ordinary sleep being described in
terms which bear the construction of taking sleep
for better deliberation, independently of the regular
and orthodox allowance. As observed at page 44,
it is necessary in order that the notice of the
phase of novelty should be made with pro-
priety-should form a joke having propriety
of production-that the two events of the occa-
sion should be brought into natural associa-
108 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
tion with each other, but of course a very little
skill of adaptation (ingenuity of the first species)
will effect this. We might suppose the sluggard
himself to be appointed an arbiter of a dispute,
when he could say, by way of a joke at his own
expense, "This matter must be slept upon to in-
sure better deliberation." Or we might sup-
pose some one making the observation for
him, in some such words as "You must sleep
upon the matter to ensure the best judgment
possible." Or, again, the sluggard and the referee
might be different persons, but in each other's
company on the occasion, when other versions of
the joke might be produced, such as the referee
inquiring if the sluggard does not envy him his
appointment, in view of the excuse it gives for
additional sleep.
In both this and the preceding versions of the
joke there is the additional element of an unsuccess-
ful attempt at deceit by the sluggard (imperfection
of Sect. I., Class II.) in pretending to want extra
sleep for the same object as arbitrators in general
might claim it, viz., for deliberation on the matters
before them, while he really wanted it as a vicious.
indulgence. In those versions of the joke in which
the speech does not come from the sluggard him-
self, but is put into his mouth by another, there
is, while not the reality of an attempt at deceit,
yet the appearance of such attempt, upon the
+
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
109
principle (see group 7, division I., first variety) of
one moral inferiority (sloth) being a certain
warrant for the presumption of another (the wish
to deceive).
The next illustration is one showing neither of
the specialities I have spoken of. In Charles
Reade's Double Marriage is the passage, "Now
this old gentleman " (a certain general officer)
"prided himself on the neatness of his dispatches.
A blot on the paper darkened his soul" (20).
The events of the occasion are a blot on the
paper, and the metaphorical expression, darkening
of the soul; phases containing, not an actual
identity, but a verbal one in virtue of the meta-
phorical description of distress of mind as dark-
ness.
•
This is one of the occasions where, the phase of
novelty being easily perceptible, literary considera-
tions make it appropriate to leave the identity
unindicated.
The undue importance given to the trivial
accident of a blot constitutes imperfection of
Sect. I., Class. II.
The remaining illustrations are of antitheses.
Mr. James Payn, in Holiday Tasks, says, speaking
of paterfamilias, alone in his house for a few
days while the family are away, "The house,
emptied of so much, is full of echoes, and its
110 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
owner's voice returns to him without contradic-
"9
tion. (21) (that is to say, he receives, after an
utterance, a return of his words instead of a
contradiction.)
The events of the occasion are the sequence to
paterfamilias' voice in the empty house, viz., the
echo, which is a non-contradiction; and the idea
(evolved from a "datum") of the sequences, in the
shape of contradictions, commonly following his
voice when the family are at home. This second
event is not expressed in words, but is presented
by inference, in the words "without contradic-
tion.” The datum for the second "event" is the
circumstance of paterfamilias' speaking in his
house on this particular occasion, from which
circumstance it is a natural transition to his
speech when the family are at home.
There is, we may say, even when one had
arrived at the idea of paterfamilias' constant
contradiction by his family, some appreciable
ingenuity (wit) required to discover the antithesis
between the two events of the occasion-the
echo and the family contradictions -the difficulty
of discovery being, it seems to me, because the
fact of an echo being a phenomenon of external
nature would tend to preclude one's looking for
any connection between it and differences of
opinion on the part of human beings. This con-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
111
nection it of course has in virtue of its being a
reproduction of paterfamilias' spoken opinion.
The systematic contradiction which pater-
familias meets with from his family involves in
him exhibition of imperfection of Sect. III., Class
I.—experience of obstruction of legitimate pro-
gress.
In Talleyrand's remark that the English had a
thousand religions and only one sauce (22), we
have an antithesis with an approximately negative
phase for one of the components of the contrast.
66
In the account of the "ransacking of a close-
fist," in The Roots of the Mountains, by Mr.
William Morris, there is a twofold antithesis :-
They ransacked the house," says a carle, “and
took away much gear; yet left some." "Thou
liest," said Penny-thumb; "they took little and
left none (23).
""
The second event of the occasion-the state-
ment of the truth of the matter-presents a risible
phase in the exhibition of miserliness in Penny-
thumb (imperfection of Sect. VI., Class I.), made
by this intimation of the scanty stock of goods.
provided in his house.
The following quotation from a burlesque
article, The Last of the Philistines, gives a two-
fold antithesis :-"The fruits and flowers of
æsthetic nature" (i.e., external nature æstheti-
112 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
!
cized) "were as mental diet, too much for them;
as physical food, too little" (24). The words
"too much" and "too little," it will be observed,
give an antithesis in the shape of diametrical
opposition.
(5.) PHASES of novelty contained in the events.
of the occasion, not wholly, but in some prominent
feature or features. In this group the phase of
novelty, while different in its entirety from the
event of the occasion, is partly contained in it by
reason of possessing one or more of the prominent
features of the former phase. The remoteness-
the circumstantial novelty-of the phase is due
to a fundamental change effected in the situation
(and to be duly explained); the mere presentation
of a sentence retaining, while differing in other
respects, one or more prominent features of a
previous utterance, being, if it lacks a funda-
mental change, of course no exercise of wit;
simply ingenuity of the first species, that is, if
it is a sentence presented by way of jocularity,
and not for the purposes of serious conversation.
The incidents form two varieties. In the first
the fundamental change is effected by a single
word or phrase which in the event of the occasion
was used in one signification, being presented in
the phase of novelty in another sense. In the
second variety the change consists in some re-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
113
versal, real or ideal, of the relations between the
parties concerned; such reversal being effected
by the presentation of, it may be one, it may be
more than one, of the prominent features of the
event of the occasion (not used in any second
signification) under radically different circum-
stances. The first variety may also present this
radical change in the situation, and consequent
reversal of relations; but although commonly
required to give point to a witticism, it is not
indispensable.
Where, as in No. 25, the second signification is
not due to a difference of particulars under a
general identity, but is owing to words of a wholly
different meaning being spelt alike, the connection
of the phase of novelty with the event of the
occasion is formal only, not substantial.
Taking illustration of the first variety; in the
opening lines of Pearl and Emerald, by Mr. R. E.
Francillon, are the words, "Were I Rothchild
himself, I would still say to all cavillers, "There
lies my glove!' And if they should reply that my
glove is not the only thing about me that lies (25)
-why, that is their affair, not mine." Here
the word "lies" is used in different senses.
event of the occasion is, "There lies my glove;"
while the phase of novelty is not the sentence
following, but what that sentence infers, viz.,
I
The
114 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
"Your tongue also lies." A reversal of the re-
lations between the parties is also effected by the
joke, the air of boastfulness in the one speech
being followed by the imputation of mendacity in
the second. We should have the one change
without the other-and, of course, a very point-
less joke-if it had been said, "I am sure your
glove is the only thing about you that lies."
A certain clergyman, speaking of some sermon
by another which had been much praised, said,
"I could have written one myself on the subject
in an hour or so, and thought nothing of it."
"And perhaps your congregation would have
thought nothing of it, too," (26) said someone
present. The phrase, "think nothing of it," has,
from the word "it" being of a general char-
acter, the two significations of "think nothing
(i.e., little) of the trouble of writing the sermon,
and "think nothing of the sermon itself." Here,
too, we have a reversal of relations between the
parties.
In the second variety, as before stated, the
fundamental change in the situation is not given
by means of a second signification in a word or
phrase, but by the presentation of a feature or
features of prominence under radically different
circumstances. The condition of appreciable
value in the joke is that the phase of novelty
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I).
115
should be one that would be wholly natural of
occurrence. Phases retaining a prominent feature
or features of an utterance or of other procedure
and fundamentally changing the situation are
easy enough of invention if they are not such as
are in the natural course of events; but the
number of wholly natural ideas with the requisite
connection with the event of the occasion is
always small, the number being often no doubt
limited to the one phase discovered by the joker.
A further factor in the value of the joke is some-
times the extent to which the features presented
in the first situation are retained in the second.
We will suppose a customer at a public-house
where the scores are chalked up against the wall,
viewing with some dissatisfaction his landlord's
unfailing certainty in recording the debts of the
former, and thinking, or saying, "Before long, I
hope, there will be more chalk inside his fingers
than outside," (27) alluding to the disease of chalk-
stones. Or we might suppose him to say, "I wish
the chalk was inside his fingers instead of out-
side" (28). The change in the situation, while its
prominent features are retained, is that in the one
case chalk appears as a writing implement, and
the fingers are the motive power, while in the
other chalk is seen as a disease, and the fingers as
a subject of it. The joke is a very moderate one,
but it fulfils the condition preserving it from
116 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
worthlessness in that the novel phase is of a
wholly natural description, and further, all the
prominent features of the first situation are
retained. If we take the remark, "I wish he had
swallowed the chalk" (29), we should have only
the one feature of the chalk reproduced, while
the swallowing of a piece of chalk is not in the
wholly natural course of events. And an idea
still less natural would be presented if the chalk
were too large to be swallowed, and the speech
had been the expression of a wish that the chalk
was inside the landlord (30).
The event of the occasion in these incidents, it
will be noted, is a non-verbal one.
The foregoing jokes-convenient for the purpose
of illustration—are a little wanting in the fullest
propriety of production, in that there is no strictly
legitimate ground, but merely some excuse, for
invoking a disease upon a person for simply
making a faithful record of debts. This defect
would not be present in the case of a person dis-
cussing the nature and composition of chalk to a
wearisome extent, and his hearer uttering, in-
wardly or openly, a wish that the chalk was
inside him.
A person sitting down on a railway seat that
creaked, observed, "Music without words;
whereon someone else, who doubted the music,
while recognizing that a remark had been made,
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART I.).
117
suggested, "Words without music" (31), thus
exactly reversing the situation presented by
the first speaker, while retaining the prominent
features of his speech, which, with the creaking
of the seat, forms the event of the occasion.
The phase of novelty here, it will be observed,
is wholly contained in the event of the occasion,
if we regard the words irrespective of the order in
which they come; but since in the phase of
novelty the words of the first speaker are trans-
posed, the joke comes under the heading of reten-
tion of prominent features of the event of the
occasion.
The fundamental change in a situation by the
retention of a prominent feature in its general
character, while not in its absolute integrity, is a
witticism belonging to this group. An instance
is given in Dr. Johnson's rejoinder on a lady's
remarking that a piece of music which was being
played before them was very difficult, intending,
of course, the implication that it was interesting
on that account. "Madam, I wish it had been
impossible" (32). In the "impossible" we have
retained a feature of the same general character
as the "
very difficult" of the first speech, the
one being only a step further than the other.
The change effected is of course that the one
speaker refers to the performance as interesting,
and the other as the reverse.
118 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
PART II.
PHASES OF SPECIAL
CONNECTION WITH-OF DEFI-
NITE PRESENTATION BY-THE EVENTS OF THE
OCCASION, BUT NOT CONTAINED THEREIN, WHOLLY
OR IN PART. SPECIAL CATEGORY OF INCIDENTS.
(6) EXCEPTIONAL immediate connections. These
phases, I have said, are of definite presentation
on the presentation of the events of the occasion
because they have, as being undesirable or else
remarkable, an importance not attaching to
phases so connected with most events of like
description.
The phases of the first variety, viz., those re-
lating to human procedure, as distinguished from
those pertaining to external nature, consist of
offensive inferences from speeches which do not
in themselves convey any offence. The "thing s
one would rather have left unsaid," which have
appeared in Punch from time to time, supply two
illustrations. A lady who has been absent from
town for some time asks a gentleman what
scandal there has been while she was away; and
he replies, "Well, the fact is there has been no
scandal" (¹); a speech unobjectionable in itself,
but bearing the inference that there was a pro-
bability or reasonable possibility that scandal
depended on the lady's presence. Again, the
host at a round table at which are seated as many
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART 11.).
119
guests as it will hold, observes, "Mr. and Mrs.
So-and-so were asked to come to us to-night, but
could not" (²), whereupon each guest, noting the
inference, thinks, "I wonder who of us would
have been left out?"
These phases of novelty-these phases inferred
from the actual words-are, as it seems to me,
momentarily removed from the ordinary mental
range because, right reason not requiring that
one should satisfy himself before speaking that a
sentence, innocuous in itself, has no offensive
inference, the mind for the moment stops at the
idea represented by the sentence itself. The
inquiry before speaking which expediency, as
distinguished from right reason, recommends, is a
subsequent process.
The falsification of the instinctive judgment
that the event of the occasion carries no inference
of special importance is common to the speaker
and his hearer or hearers. The speaker's addi-
tional error of judgment in committing himself
to the speech is, of course, a more considerable
imperfection.
There would be formal presumption that every-
one, hearers and speaker alike, would discover
the phase of novelty-the offensive inference-
sooner or later, though here as elsewhere the
evidence may be delusive as regards particular
persons. (If the incidents were real, and per-
120 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
sonal
assurances of their discovery of the
offensive inferences had been given by any of
the audience to any other person or persons, such
latter would have positive evidence, superseding
the formal presumptive evidence, of the dis-
covery.)
The imperfections other than the above errors
of judgment should be mentioned. In each case
the speaker exhibits risible imperfection in the
shape of discourtesy (imperfection of Sect. VI.,
Class I.) In the lady of the first anecdote moral
inferiority is inferred in respect of her presumed
love of scandal. And in some two of the guests
at the dinner table, viz., whichever two would
have been uninvited if the absent couple had been
able to come, there is exhibited risible imperfec-
tion (of Sect. I., Class II.) in the shape of in-
feriority in one or more directions, mental, social,
or both, to a generality of persons, viz., the
generality of guests at the table.
The occasional phases relating to external
nature which form the second variety of this
group owe their special importance to their being
in some degree remarkable. These phases are
not, like those of the other variety, momentarily,
but are permanently, removed from the ordinary
mental range. When giraffes were first heard of,
one of the comments on them was that they
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
121
would be liable to seven feet or so of sore
throat (³). Again, in, I think, Longfellow's
Hyperion, there is mentioned a road which, if you
followed it, was found to dwindle to a squirrel-
track and run up a tree (4).
The event of the occasion in the first incident is
the idea of the giraffe-of an animal with an
extraordinarily long neck; and in the second, an
unfinished road; the phases of novelty being the
liability, or apparent liability, to sore throat on a
most exceptionally extensive scale, and a vertical
track as a natural termination to an unfinished
road. And they are remote, as I mentioned in
Chapter V., because there is nothing to suggest
to the mind on contemplation of the respective
events of the occasion that there are any remark-
able phases connected with them.
The formal presumptive evidence of ingenuity
would be present with this variety whenever the
person verbally expressing the phase of novelty
made no mention of his having met with it in the
actual course of events of external nature.
(7) PHASES of invariable immediate class con-
nection. There are two divisions of these inci-
dents. In the first, the phase of novelty belongs
to a class of ideas, any of which is reasonably
possible of being, and one of which (presumably
the one indicated by common sense) is, the real
122 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
immediate antecedent (in the shape of motive or
cause), concomitant, or sequence, of or from the
event of the occasion.
This division has two varieties, the first and
most extensive of which is composed mainly of
what we call improbable explanations. This
designation would in strictness be applicable to
the whole of the variety, but we commonly re-
serve the term, improbable explanation, for those
incidents in which, from one reason or another,
the probable motive or cause for the procedure-
comes into some prominence. This first variety I
now proceed to discuss.
I take first those explanations which relate to
another's, not one's own conduct. A substantial
number of improbable explanations must be pre--
sented unwittingly by children, on whose behalf
there is no formal presumptive evidence of in-
genuity, these ideas when presented by children
being of course not witticisms, but simply exhi-
bitions of the mental inferiority, in particular
matters, which is natural to childhood on occasion.
Speaking with regard to adults,—as stated, or
implied, at the beginning of this chapter (vide the
enumeration of generic risible phases) where the
presenter of the remote phase-it not being his
own, but another's procedure which is under
consideration-professes belief in its being the
motive or cause actually associated with the
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
123
procedure, he makes a fallacious exhibition of de-
fective common sense. While if, though it would
scarcely ever be done, he disavows such a belief,
and presents the phase of novelty simply as
having a sensible connection with the event of
the occasion, he makes, by his entry into the
region beyond the limits of common sense, a
genuine exhibition of mental inferiority, of a
degree short of defective common sense.
An illustration of these improbable explanations
of another's conduct is seen in the suggestion, as
a reason for a king's delay in making his appear-
ance for his coronation, that the monarch had
lost his crown (5). This explanation of the delay,
which could be seriously given by a child, would
be indifferent wit in an adult.
There is an anecdote of Henry Grattan that in
a night walk in Windsor Forest he was apostro-
phising a gibbet, when he felt himself tapped on
the shoulder, and on turning round, was accosted
by the inquiry, "How the devil did you get
down?" "I presume, sir," said Grattan, "you
have a personal interest in that question" (").
The motive for the inquiry which common sense
indicates as obvious is the curiosity a person
would ordinarily feel to know how a man sup-
posed to have extricated himself from the gallows
managed to effect that object.
Samuel Foote, the comedian, telling a story one
124 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
..
day at a dinner party, was interrupted by a guest
(wishing to see if Foote could be taken unawares
and put out) saying his handkerchief was hanging
out of his pocket. "Thank you, sir," said Foote,
replacing it; "you know the company better than
I do" (7). The ordinary motive for such an inter-
ruption would be the wish to secure the handker-
chief from loss, temporary or permanent, not the
fear of its being stolen by one of the company.
The founder of Bentley's Miscellany at first
thought of calling the magazine The Wits'
Miscellany, a title to which the objection was
made, by James Smith, that it promised too
much. Shortly after, Mr. Bentley came to tell
Smith that he had resolved to call the magazine
Bentley's Miscellany. "Isn't that going a
little too far the other way?" said Smith (8).
Here there are connected with the events of
the occasion-(the decision to call the paper
Bentley's Miscellany)-a class of inferences, viz.,
pretensions of the proposed magazine to the
several degrees of merit and demerit which it is
reasonably possible to associate with the founder
of the paper, the degree indicated by common
sense being of course that which attaches to a
person of average intelligence.
As regards the substantial value which the joke
possesses ;—After a title of indisputable preten-
sions, like The Wits' Miscellany, a title bearing
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
125
·
the name of an ordinary member of the public is
necessarily brought into unfavourable comparison,
and this gives an excuse for assigning to Mr.
Bentley merits below the average, which excuse
there would not have been under ordinary cir-
cumstances, the circumstances, namely, of the name
of Bentley not being lowered comparatively by
companionship with a title of indisputable pre-
tensions.
Of course the ostensible beliefs in the full pro-
priety—the full reasonableness of improbable
explanations, which are customary, are by the
same formal presumptive eviden ce which makes
them ostensible not real deficiencies of common
sense, presumable, i.e., suspected falsehoods of the
nominal order. We do not, however, call them
apparent attempts at deceit, from the several
circumstances that the explanation is without the
weight, much or little according to moral char-
acter, which attaches to the explanation of the
person or persons who alone has or have positive
knowledge of the true motive or cause; the cir-
cumstance that no material benefit would be
gained by the presenter if his explanation were
accepted on his authority; and the circumstance
that common sense ordinarily protects the hearer
from thus accepting it. In improbable explana-
tions of one's own procedure-these constituting
apparent attempts at deceit in the eyes of persons
126 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
*
in general, though for any person having special
knowledge warranting belief in the explanation
(knowledge of exceptional moral integrity or
other special circumstances) it would be taken
out of that category-various special features are
seen.
In the first place, no formal presumptive evi-
dence of wit would attach to the presenter, by
reason of the circumstance that positive evidence
as to whether the idea is due to wit or is the
simple truth, which supersedes formal presump-
tive evidence, can be given by the person whose
procedure is under consideration, and is professed
to be given by him. Evidence which we may
accept in preference to his own account is, of
course, special to the particular occasion.
Of course, knowledge that the explanation con-
stituted a phase of circumstantial novelty to
persons in general would be presumable of the
presenter whether it was an ingenious idea in
him or the simple truth.
In an unsuccessful attempt to deceive consti-
tuting a phase of circumstantial novelty there is
an exhibition of the two risible imperfections
involved in unsuccessful attempts in general at
deceit, and referred to in Sect. I., Class II. of im-
perfections, viz., incidental inferiority in respect
of an expectation, of substantial degree, real (to
all appearance) or ostensible only, that the
Novelty No. 1 (PART II).
127
attempt would be successful, and adventitious
inferiority in respect of a like and necessarily real
expectation, of inconsiderable degree, consequent
upon the fact that there must be some chance,
even though infinitesimal, that the false explana-
tion would be accepted. The number of serious
attempts to deceive others with explanations op-
posed to the common sense of persons in general
would, of course, be much smaller than that of
those where the explanation was not thus op-
posed.
Regarding the incidents in their moral bear-
ings, where an attempt at deceit is a dishonest
one, and occurs in real life, any appreciable value
which the idea may have for the intellectual sense
can at most divide attention with the moral or
material issues, so far as persons interested in
these are concerned. While with jocular ex-
planations the intellectual value of the idea is all
that calls for consideration.
Where the attempt to deceive is dishonest the
object of course is to present the most plausible
idea, and it is not often that this has much value
to the intellectual sense.
The events of the occasion are usually verbal,
but where non-verbal procedure is fully definite it
forms the event of an occasion equally whether
expressed in words or not. A butler drinking his
employer's wine, or a person taking out his watch
128 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
and looking at it for a moment, are sufficiently
definite actions to make it a matter of indiffer-
ence whether the procedure is verbally expressed
or not.
The former proceeding, expressed in words or
not as occasion might determine, illustrates a
serious attempt at deceit if we suppose the butler
to offer the comparatively innocent, and improb-
able, explanation of the wine being drunk to test
its quality, irrespective of gratification of the
palate (9). The explanation would of course have
to be one volunteered on detection if the pro-
cedure was not expressed in words.
The other proceeding-the glance at the watch
-shows a jocular attempt at deceit if we suppose
the owner to volunteer the improbable explana-
tion of his motive being the calculation of its
precise weight (10).
Where moral inferiority, or suspicious conduct,
is observed, an improbable explanation of the
procedure will have a certain appearance of
coming from the person doing wrong or under
suspicion, though it be put forward by the ob-
server; as, for instance, where a person seen to
take from a tree and eat an apple to which he
had no right, was accosted with the words, "I
suppose you think the fruit would grow better if
the tree was thinned?" (11) or where it was
remarked to a person carrying off something not
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
129
belonging to him, that no doubt his reason for
taking it away was that he thought it would be
kept more safely for its owner if placed else-
where (12).
This semblance of an improbable explanation
proceeding from a person who has not actually
made it, attaches because the presence or sus-
pected presence of one moral inferiority is a
fairly legitimate warrant for the assumption that
another, in the shape of a desire to excuse the
actual or conceal the suspected inferiority, exists ;
which assumption gives a natural appearance of
the explanation coming, with the object of deceit,
from the person to whose conduct it relates.
At the same time the wit in the discovery of
the idea, as distinguished from the moral in-
feriority in the supposititious attempt at deceit, is
credited to the actual speaker; formal presump-
tive evidence of wit in him attending the pre-
sentation of the idea, with the like evidence of
conscious invention in respect of the profession
of belief in the explanation.
Those taunts for obvious failures, which take
the form of pretended approval of the procedure,
are phases of this variety, the phase of novelty
being, of course, a sequence to the event of the
occasion, and the class of ideas to which it
belongs that of opinions of the procedure.
A class of incidents, belonging to the variety,
K
130 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
in which a phase of novelty is-without being
expressed quickly revealed by special collateral
circumstances as probably the phase of actual
association with the event of the occasion-a
class showing an inversion of the usual process
of jocularity—will be dealt with in one category
with what I have called inverted quibbles, at the
end of this part of the chapter.
In the second variety of this division the phase
of novelty is a sequence to the event of the occa-
sion, in the shape of the expression of an emotion
(or it may be, evidence of grounds for an emotion)
in the person concerned, of an opposite descrip-
tion to that which according to ordinary prin-
ciples would result from the "event."
In this variety the phase of novelty has a
reasonable connection with the event of the
occasion-is a reasonable, a legitimate sequence
to the event-only in virtue of special circum-
stances, known (at the time the novel phase is
produced) merely to the initiated, the reader
being generally one of these. And to these, con-
sequently, the sequence is not a phase of novelty
(though it will be convenient here and there to
call it one without stating that for these excep-
tional persons who are prepared for the character
of the sequence the term is inapplicable), and no
wit can be exercised by them in conceiving the
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
131
sequence. As regards those not knowing, at the
time of the production of the novel phase, of the
special circumstances, for them to conceive an
opposite emotion to the ordinary which yet forms
a reasonable sequence, it is necessary that they
should think of their own accord of some special
circumstances which would make such an emotion
natural. And since these circumstances neces-
sarily would not ordinarily accompany an event
promising a certain emotion, to produce, upon
such an event occurring in real life, a joke upon
it by means of referring to special circumstances
which, in the generality of cases, would be found
to be non-existent, would be too obvious an ex-
hibition of the idea for the sole sake of the
ingenuity to be appropriate. Thus, although
whenever in real life there might possibly be
these special circumstances accompanying an event,
a phase of novelty in the shape of an opposite
emotion to the ordinary is "definitely presented "
to us, one can only appropriately produce the
witticism by introducing it subsequently in some
fictitious narrative form, with such alteration of
accessories as would enable him in a natural
manner to attribute to the special circumstances
an actual existence.
As regards "evidence of ingenuity" in such a
person;-if on the production of the event of the
occasion in real life he produced the idea of an
132 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
opposite emotion to the ordinary, in the person
concerned, mentioning the special circumstances
which might possibly be existent, the evidence
would be of the " positive," not "formal presump-
tive," description, since where there were no
special circumstances already apparent, he must
of necessity have imagined them, and the phase
of novelty. If he introduced his idea in a pro-
fessed narration of a real incident, there would be
variable and indefinite evidence of the incident
being an invention of his own.
As regards the person from whom the emotion
would come; where, as is commonly the case, he
is not himself the inventor of the special circum-
stances, while yet putting them in exhibition as
real, as would be the case in No. 17 if a joke was
meant, of course no ingenuity is shown by him.
He would, of course, have knowledge of the
novelty of the phase to those previously ignorant
of the special circumstances; provided, that is,
that he knew, as he commonly would, not except-
ing No. 17, if the speaker was joking, that the
circumstances were special, and would conse-
quently cause the emotion resulting from them
to be opposite to what would ordinarily be looked
for.
A remark is called for respecting the "generic
imperfection" of falsification of instinctive judg-
ment. Where the special circumstances become
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
133
known to a person before the sequence is pro-
duced to him, thereby preparing him for the
nature of the sequence, the falsification of judg-
ment would not be exhibited by him, but by a
person or persons imagined with the event of the
occasion before him or them, without being
cognisant of the special circumstances.
With
The incidents can now be illustrated.
the first, it may be mentioned, its representative
form does not give the event of the occasion and
the phase of novelty in the order in which the
original occurrence would present them, the phase
of novelty being given first and the event of the
occasion after it; but one, of course, instinctively
refers the two to their respective positions in the
original order of occurrence.
A formal guarantee of an article is ordinarily
evidence of its excellence, but under the special
circumstances of its being furnished by a dishonest
person it would indicate just the reverse. Being
in itself only an evidence-I refer to the ordinary
and reliable guarantee-of the value of an article,
a guarantee is not a property capable of giving an
appreciable emotion of pleasure so long as one is
not in possession of the object to which it relates.
But in the case of one's being already possessed of
a thing irrespective of any warrant of its excellence,
the subsequent production of such a warrant would
134 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
ordinarily be a welcome circumstance. While on
the other hand, the appearance of a guarantee
known to be by an unscrupulous person would be
the reverse. Here, then, we should have a phase
of novelty to persons not knowing the special
quarter from which the guarantee came. Such a
phase would take its extreme and most striking
form in the account of a person who had more than
once, upon the faith of a written guarantee, given
trial to articles from a particular quarter, which
had turned out worthless, having an article offered
him for purchase not as coming from any one place
in particular, but standing apparently solely on
its own merits. He examines it, buys it, and has,
he thinks, every reason to be satisfied with his
bargain; when suddenly he sees, what puts it
beyond question that it must remain a dead loss
on his hands, the written guarantee which he
knows so well (13).
It is from what we may call literary considera-
tions that in the narration the phase of novelty
precedes the event of the occasion. We should
have the actual order of occurrence if we read;
Suddenly noting the guarantee, he knew that the
article must remain a dead loss on his hands.
The special circumstances, the previous knowledge
of which makes the dissatisfaction a sequence only,
not a phase of novelty, for the reader, are, of
course, the exceptional experience of these par-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
135
ticular guarantees being evidence against, instead
of in favour of the goods.
We have a second instance if one said of
some author that he habitually wandered so far
from his subject that when his printers once put
in a leaf from another work by mistake, it posi-
tively improved the book (14). The phase of
novelty here is the resultant benefit from (through
a certain license of supposition) what would
ordinarily give the utmost dissatisfaction.
In this joke, although the special circumstances
are stated in a general manner from the first, they
are not completely indicated-we do not know the
precise extent of the author's habitual departure
from his subject-until the phase of novelty is
produced.
Again, we may take the central idea in Mark
Twain's account, in The Innocents at Home, of the
visits, at some period of utter impecuniosity, made
to him by a banker's agent, in the unavailing
attempt to collect a debt. Calling regularly once
a week, or oftener, he would plead long and
earnestly for the money, or failing that, for some-
thing on account, the smallest instalment; and
then, finding each time that it was just a case of
empty pockets, he would remain, throw off the
creditor, and settle down to a long luxurious con-
versation about everything and everybody. Under
136 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
:
such circumstances as these the debtor came, and
naturally so, to long for visits such as would be
most unwelcome as a general rule (15).
وو
A person says to a friend of his, an author of
average ability, who has just published a book,
"I never read any of your books I liked more.
He then adds, " At the same time I am bound to
say I never read a book by any other writer which
I liked less" (16). This is one of the incidents I
have mentioned where the phase of novelty is not
an opposite emotion to the ordinary, but a cir-
cumstance (forming a virtual equivalent) constitu-
ting a ground for such emotion. It is the emotion
a casual or cursory attention to the nature of the
first sentence would produce, which here represents
the "ordinary
ordinary" one; the special circumstances
being the knowledge which a closer consideration
of the wording of the sentence would give, viz.,
that the preference of the book over all the
author's other books is yet compatible with an
exceedingly low opinion of its general value.
There is a story of a distinguished Impressionist
being addressed by one of his pupils with the
words, "They say there are but two names, your-
self and Velasquez." "Why drag in Velasquez,"
said the other (17). To place on a separate
supreme pedestal a painter not among those
generally admitted as the greatest, and one other,
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
137
would ordinarily be presumed to be certainly some
gratification to the artist; but here we see the
special circumstances of a most unduly high
estimate, real or professed, of one's own perform-
ances.
To mention here a special point in connection
with evidence of ingenuity; this is an instance,
and the only one I know of, where the phase of
novelty itself is (in virtue of the unwarranted
conceit, real or professed) a mental imperfection
in the presenter, and consequently would be pre-
cluded from carrying formal presumptive evidence
of wit, however conclusive evidence of the vari-
able and indefinite description there might be on
the occasion.
The second division of this group is composed of
what is commonly called humour by surprise; the
phase of novelty here belonging to a class of ideas,
any one of which is more or less natural or appro-
priate of actual association in the immediate
future with the event of the occasion. This
latter is, according to the description of the inci-
dent, an unfinished sentence, or a part of an
obviously unfinished incident-for instance, a
question without the answer. On the presentation
of this portion of a sentence or unfinished incident,
a definite expectation is necessarily formed, for the
138 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
'
moment or longer, of a sequence to it of the de-
scription, general or particular, indicated either
by common sense or one's knowledge of the
principles of human procedure. The phase of
novelty is a sequence of a different description to
this, and the presentation of it therefore (or it
might be, one's own speedy recollection that a
joke may be forthcoming), effects the destruction
of the expectation-a form of falsification of
judgment. Hence the term, humour by surprise.
With one description of these incidents, the
event of the occasion here being always, it would
seem, an unfinished sentence, some word of
general signification is used, first in one par-
ticular sense, and then again presented, to be
employed, common sense suggests for a moment
or longer, in the same particular sense, but, as
we find actually happens, in another sense.
We have an instance in some lines on a bad
fiddler:
Old Orpheus played so well, he moved old Nick ;
While thou mov'st nothing but thy fiddlestick (18).
The events of the occasion-the passage up to
and including the word "but "-point to the
word "mov'st" being used in the sense of
affecting the emotions, as on the first time of
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
139
using the verb; instead of which it is used in the
physical sense.
In the second and third sentences of the joke by
Berlioz quoted in the first part of this chapter (see
No. 5), "his Faith" is the event of the occasion
in the second sentence (19), and "his Charity
that in the third (20). The phases of novelty
have reference respectively to Rossini's Faith and
Charity in the sense of mental and moral qualities,
whereas the events of the occasion (though one
may guess the description of the coming phases
from previous indications) point to phases having
reference to the musical pieces, since Rossini's
"Faith" and "Charity" had previously been used
exclusively in the sense of the musical works.
Taking instances of another description, two
men were walking together, and one, pointing out
to the other a person near them, said, "Do you
see that man? Forty years ago he entered this
town, purchased a basket, and set to work collect-
ing rags. What do you think he is worth now?"
"How much?" says the other. "Nothing,"
was the reply, "and he owes the money for the
basket" (21).
In one of Mr. Burnand's jokes, the starter of a
field of runners, after uttering the second signal
"two," which is commonly followed by the final
140 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
word "three," enters upon fractions-" two and
a third; two and three-fifths" (22). The employ-
ment of more than one but a definite number of
signals is a convenient process because by this
means the utmost preparation for the several
competitors starting at the same moment is
ensured. That this object can only be attained
by using a definite number of signals, common
sense points out, and it would therefore be taken
for granted that the final number "three " should
be reached by the only process which constitutes
a definite mode of progression, viz., integral
numbers.
In thus delaying the race indefinitely, the
starter causes in the competitors exhibition of
imperfection of Sect. III., Class I.; experience
of obstruction of legitimate progress.
Another illustration is the epitaph on a certain
doctor, quoted in Schopenhauer's Theory of the
Ludicrous, in The World as Will and Idea, "Here
lies he like a hero, and those he has slain lie
around him" (23). The event of the occasion is
so much of the passage as precedes the intimation
that the doctor has been an agent of death. The
phase which would be presented to the mind
ordinarily would be the general idea of some
creditable performance, instead of which we find
the reverse. The connection of the phase of
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
141
novelty with the event of the occasion is formal
merely, not substantial, the likeness to a herɔ
being only in respect of the results of the work,
not in respect of credit or fame attending it.
—an
The illustration No. 23, Part I. of this chapter,
gives, in the latter of the two events of the oc-
casion-" they took little and left none
instance (24) of humour by surprise; for the
ordinary supposition on hearing that little had
been taken from the house would be that some-
thing would remain. There being no pause
between the event of the occasion and the
phase of novelty, one is scarcely enabled to form
the usual judgment as to what will follow the
event of the occasion ("they took little and
left" .), scarcely enabled to apprehend the
idea forming the event of the occasion, separately
from that forming the phase of novelty. The
place of the incident in this group is, however,
obvious, and we have only to withhold for an
instant the utterance of the word "none" for a
definite judgment to be formed, momentarily or
longer, that something would remain after the
robbery.
The number is by no means inconsiderable of
these incidents where, from the complete absence
of any appreciable element of surprise, they have
all the appearance of jokes which could not be
classified with those where appreciable surprise is
142 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
i
produced; but the community of the two descrip-
tions is obvious when we note their composition.
In Schopenhauer's Theory of the Ludicrous, in
The World as Will and Idea, there is quoted an
anecdote of a Gascon who, when the king laughed
on seeing him in light summer clothing in the
depth of winter, said, "If your Majesty had put
on what I have, you would find it very warm "(25).
Then, on being asked what he had put on, he
replied, "My whole wardrobe.” The event of
the occasion is the Gascon's sentence up to "find
it." The phase which would ordinarily occur to
the mind at this stage would be the idea of a
state of cold, making the phase presented by the
Gascon―the idea of a state of warmth-one of
circumstantial novelty. As with illustration No.
24, there being no pause after the presentation of
the event of the occasion, one is scarcely enabled
to form a definite judgment as to what will follow
the "event," though of course a pause would
produce the usual judgment in due form. And
the incident presents a further speciality, in that
when we have the phase of novelty before us we
do not see how it has any sensible connection
with the words preceding it. One would have
therefore to make inquiry, as the king did. The
answer, "I have put on my whole wardrobe,"
shows the connection (one perhaps only existing
by a certain license, since the words "put on
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
143
""
what I have” imply putting on a light summer
suit. The expression "followed my example
would not be open to this objection).
(8) SPECIAL category: Inversions of ordinary
processes of jocularity. I mentioned in the first
part of this chapter a class of jokes which I called
inverted quibbles; a joke of this kind consisting
in the production of a general utterance to which
common sense, independently of special collateral
circumstances, would assign one particular mean-
ing, but another interpretation of which (ap-
propriate of notice because obviously representing
the probable facts of the case) is, while never
expressed, revealed to us by a moment's con-
sideration of special collateral circumstances
attending the occasion. I have also mentioned,
in discussing the phases of invariable immediate
class connection (division I., first variety), a class
of jokes, belonging to that group and showing
the like inversion of the common process. And
these two classes from separate groups may con-
veniently be dealt with in one category. With
the quibbles, it will be remembered, the phase of
novelty is contained in the event of the occasion;
while the phases of class connection are simply
definitely presented by the events.
As with puns and various incidents in group
No. 4, the event of the occasion is provided
144 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
through the medium of data or material for it,
the special collateral circumstances forming such
material. And this "material," as well as the
event of the occasion, is provided by ingenuity of
the first species. The collateral circumstances
are of a "special" character in virtue of their
suggesting a phase other than that for the
moment occurring to the mind; whereas the
collateral circumstances ordinarily accompanying
an utterance in the form of words the event of
the occasion takes in these jokes, at no time point
to any other phase than that which would be
suggested from the first moment.
The data, it will be observed, are of the "in-
dispensable" order so far as regards their being
necessary to the possession of a place in this
category by the form of words constituting the
event of the occasion. Without the data, how-
ever, the form of words would still remain an
"event of an occasion" with the same remote
phase connected with it as here; in such case
constituting merely an ordinary incident of group
No. 2 or 7. Of course the context to the
"event" would have to be totally altered, and
the remote phase would be without the propriety
of presentation which in this category it has
from representing the probable facts of the case.
It might, perhaps, be thought that under my
theory these collateral circumstances should be
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
145
termed concomitant and incidental events of the
occasion. The point is an immaterial one, but
the following are the grounds for my not so
regarding them. It is true that on the one hand
they so far resemble the concomitant and inci-
dental events accompanying the ordinary quibbles
as to make the phase of novelty a statement of
fact; and the circumstance that in this category
the phase of novelty is the only fact connected
with the event of the occasion, while with the
ordinary quibble it is commonly only one of two
facts, would not seem to be a reason for with-
holding the term of concomitant event from the
collateral circumstances. The reason for with-
holding it lies in the fact that while both with
the ordinary quibbles and with jokes in this
category the accompanying circumstances are in
evidence before persons in general, in the special
category they are, an almost certain guide to the
remote phase-a practically open indication of it
-and in the other cases give no assistance in the
discovery.
Mark Twain's burlesque autobiography gives
jokes from both group No. 2 and group No. 7.
In this narrative-an almost uninterrupted chain
of conceits, with here and there an unequivocal
circumstance, in the shape of an obvious false-
hood, completing the narrative-we have a rela-
L
146 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
tion, by inference, not expression, of continuous
fraud and villainy on the part of the writer's several
ancestors—with whom the story is exclusively
concerned-in such a manner, however, that the
several proceedings have a momentary appearance
of being laudable, or else in no wise discreditable;
it being by special collateral circumstances, not
the respective narrations themselves of the several
proceedings, that we recognize, a moment later,
the true description of such proceedings. These
special collateral circumstances are various com-
mon practices, customs, and ordinances in relation
to crime; ordinances, etc., sometimes stated in
words (as in No. 26), and which, where not thus
indicated, a moment's consideration enables us
(in virtue of a community of general characteristics
between the phases of novelty and the ideas first
presented to the mind) to connect with the several
expressions.
An inverted quibble is seen in the reference to
the ancestor who, having invented a patent
gallows, went to see them perform upon the first
white man hanged in America, "and while there
received injuries which terminated in his death "(26).
This last sentence (forming the event of the
occasion) would ordinarily receive, and thus we
momentarily give it, the particular interpretation
of some accident or wound in a brawl having
been experienced; but the collateral circumstance
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II.).
147
་
:
•
of the gallows being on the spot when the writer's
progenitor meets his death, immediately after-
wards indicate, as the interpretation representing
the actual circumstances of the case, the idea of
these injuries having been caused by the gallows
themselves.
وو
In another passage,—“he was no sooner through
with one contract under Government than they
gave him another" (27)—we have an unambiguous
expression if we regard the word "contract "
strictly, but with a slight license the sentence
bears the two interpretations of a genuine con-
tract, and a piece of any kind of business, before
one.
I next take two illustrations of collateral
circumstances revealing after a moment a phase
of novelty of invariable immediate class connec-
nection-a phase reasonably possible of actual
association (and here, because of the inverted
character of the joke, the phase undoubtedly of
actual association) with the event of the occasion.
The first instance is a relation of procedure which,
while really as the collateral circumstances
suggest-taken by the subject of the memoir in
his own interest, has a plausible appearance of
benefiting or being connected with the benefit of
others; this supposed benefit being dwelt upon
and no mention made of the self-interested
motive. The passage is the reference to "the
148 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
old Admiral,” as he was called in the family,
66
though in history he had other titles." He
"did great service in hurrying up merchantmen (28).
Vessels which he followed and kept his eagle
eye on always made good fair time across the
ocean (29). But if a ship still loitered, in spite
of all he could do,* (30) his indignation would
grow till he could contain himself no longer
-and then he would take that ship home where
he lived, and keep it there carefully, expecting
the owners to come for it, but they never did.”
Of course-speaking of the supposed benefit by
the pursuit to such ships as were not captured-
any extra speed in consequence of the chase
would be more than balanced by disadvantages
in other respects, but there is a superficial appear-
ance of advantage accruing.
There are, strictly speaking, three events of the
occasion in the above passage, and three phases
of novelty, although they are respectively all of
the same general character, viz., pursuit by a
pirate on the one hand, and endeavour to escape
capture on the other. The first two "events"
are of precisely the same character, merely being
expressed in different words, each event being a
statement of benefit received by the owners of the
* I have, it will be seen, continued the quotation beyond my
actual illustration because of the fragmentary character this
would otherwise have.
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART II).
149
merchantmen from rapid sailing in consequence
of the "old Admiral" following the ships. The
third event-the words, "But if a ship still
loitered in spite of all he could do "-is like the
other two as regards the Admiral's following the
ship, but speaks of a slower pace; while the phase
of novelty presents a like difference from the
other two, being tardiness of flight instead of
rapidity. It is only by a certain amount of
license that unavoidable tardiness can be regarded
as a form of loitering; but as the slowness of
sailing is the essential feature, we are naturally
able to allow this license. In the words, "his
indignation would grow," etc., etc.-an obvious
falsehood—we have one of the unambiguous
statements which must necessarily be made here
and there in a continuous narrative of this
kind.
The
Another instance of collateral circumstances
revealing a phase of novelty is seen where one of
the ancestors is spoken of as having a "preference
for striped clothes" (31), the prison dress.
class of ideas to which this phase belongs is that
of immediate inferences from the event of the
occasion- the having a preference for striped
clothes. The inference for the moment drawn
from this statement is that the striped clothes
were worn in consequence of this asserted
preference; but a moment's thought shows us
150 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
that they were worn in accordance with the will
of the prison authorities.
This category presents the generic imperfection
common to all incidents containing phases of
special connection, viz., the falsification of an
instinctive judgment though not more than
momentary in these incidents-by the recipient.
The illustrations also present imperfection (of
Sect. I., Class II.) in respect of an unsuccessful
jocular attempt to deceive, not by a positively
false statement, but by an expression whose
particular interpretation, or whose phase of
immediate class connection, suggested by the
general principles of common sense, does not
represent the probable facts, as revealed to us
by the collateral circumstances.
PART III.
REMAINING PHASES OF CLASS I. (VIZ., THE PHASES
OF GENERAL CONNECTION IN THAT CLASS) AND
CLASS II.
(9) OBVIOUS exaggerations of phases of excellence
or of imperfection, or obvious exaggeration or
extension of conditions connected with the latter.
For exaggerations of excellences, imperfections, or
attendant conditions of imperfections, to possess
circumstantial novelty No. 2, these three descrip-
tions of phases must be such as the positive
experience of persons in general, or, this being
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
151
wanting, such as common sense indicates are of
appreciably less degree of excellence or imper-
fection, or are appreciably less exaggerated or
extended attendant conditions of imperfections,
than represented. It is the consideration of
the phases in their true or approximately true
character their consideration in this lesser
degree of excellence or imperfection, or this more
limited aspect of attendant conditions-which
forms the event of the occasion. While the
phase of novelty is, as regards excellences, the
exaggeration of the excellence; and as regards
imperfections, in some incidents an exaggeration
of the imperfection (with a second phase of
novelty where the exaggeration has an accom-
panying feature-to be shortly more particularly
referred to), and in the incidents where the
imperfection itself is not exaggerated, the above-
mentioned obvious exaggeration or extension of
attendant conditions. Both those phases of
novelty which are, and those which are not,
reasonably possible of realization are given
legitimacy of presentation (the qualification, it
will be remembered, for a place in class I.) by the
laws of hyperbole, giving as these do a certain
sanction to any increase of conditions already
divergent from the mean.
Where the phase of novelty is not reasonably
possible of representing a reality, as is almost
152 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
always the case, there is of course positive
evidence of ingenuity of the third species, while
a nominal falsehood is uttered if the presenter
professes a belief in its representing, or being
reasonably possible of representing, a reality.
Mere increase of degree in the representation
of an excellence or imperfection is a wholly
mechanical process. Consequently, where the
phase exaggerated is one of excellence, the
incident, although presenting a phase of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, is virtually without any
risible aspect, the generic imperfection of defec-
tive common sense shown in presenting the exag-
geration practically passing unnoticed. Where
the exaggerated phase is an imperfection, there
is, of course, risibility-in virtue of the imperfec-
tion alike in its real and in its exaggerated
degree. But this risibility is of a wholly ordinary
description, and is in no wise interesting. For
interest to be given by an incident in this group
dealing with imperfection, it must be either one
in which, if the imperfection itself is exaggerated,
some additional feature accompanies the exag-
geration, or one in which, if the imperfection is
not exaggerated, some attendant condition of the
imperfection is exaggerated, or extended.
The incidents dealing with excellences seldom
furnish interest, anything beyond simple and
familiar exaggeration, such as calling a person
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
153
"perfection," "the best," or "the wisest" of
mankind, being seldom met with, since it would
bring into prominence the generic imperfection
of defective common sense in making the exag-
geration, which the incident contains; and pro-
minence of imperfection-jocularity-does not as
a rule harmonize with qualities of excellence.
Occasionally, however, something more than the
familiar conventional phrases of exaggeration can
be presented, and the notice of the excellence
thus possess some interest for us.
Passing to illustration :-Exaggerations of de-
gree, simply, need not I think be illustrated. Of
incidents having more or less interest, I know, as
regards excellences, of only one instance ; the
excellence being exaggerated, and the interest
lying in a feature accompanying the exaggeration.
Speaking of someone noted for his virtues, Robert
Hall, the celebrated divine, said: "His moral
excellence is such that if there were not other-
wise room in Heaven, God would turn out an arch-
angel for him”
(¹).
As regards imperfections, we have an imperfec-
tion exaggerated, and an accompanying feature
presented, in a passage from Artemus Ward:
"Shakespeare wrote good plase, but he wouldn't
have succeeded as the Washington correspondent
154 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
of a New York daily paper. He lacked the rekisit
fancy and imaginashun. That's so." (2)
To speak first of the precise imperfection ridi-
culed, and accepting Mr. Ward's ridicule as
warranted, the fancy and imagination of these
newspaper correspondents in its true degree—
constituting the event of the occasion, and pre-
sented at the same time as the phase of novelty-
is systematic misrepresentation of the description
I have mentioned in Chapter IV. as being at once
dishonest falsehood and thus an offence, and
risible imperfection because easily detected, it
being more especially in this latter aspect of
risibility that it is regarded by Mr. Ward.
The exaggeration is made by representing
Shakespeare's fancy and imagination, which no
one would maintain, nor does Mr. Ward here, is
below that of an average person, as less than that
of the reporters.
The very considerable value of this joke lies in
the humorist's representing a degree of fancy
above Shakespeare's as in no wise remarkable-in
his speaking of it in the ordinary terms appro--
priate to the normal possession of a whole class;
whence Shakespeare's measure of fancy, while in
no wise diminished, appears in the light of a dis-
qualification.
So far as words go, it is not said that Shakes-
peare's fancy is supereminent, and the reporters*
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
155
still higher; the words would also admit of the
interpretation that the reporter's fancy is not
exceptional, and that Shakespeare's is below the
average. But the reading naturally suggested-
by reason, it seems to me, that there is a defect
observed, natural to be noticed by exaggeration,
and also because there would be no sense in
under-estimating Shakespeare's fancy-is the
former, that Shakespeare's fancy is supreme, and
the reporters' yet higher.
The idea of the fancy of a whole class of
reporters being above that of Shakespeare is
a phase not reasonably possible of representing
a reality. With regard, however, to the joker's
profession of belief in its representing a reality,
we cannot-the phase being not of the descrip-
tion which is contrary to the laws of nature
-say with absolute certainty that particular
individuals, even of education, might not really
believe in the idea, and thus, although we have
no reasonable doubt that Mr. Ward's profession
of belief is false, such profession is not a nominal
falsehood, but an exhibition of defective common
sense, with formal presumptive evidence of in-
genuity of the third species. We might, how-
ever, grant the contention that it must be
absolutely certain that
educated person
could really hold the belief, with the result
merely that the joker's profession becomes a
no
156 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
nominal falsehood, with positive evidence of the
ingenuity.
Taking the second description of incident, viz.,
exaggeration or extension of some attendant con-
dition of an imperfection, an instance of exag-
geration is seen in Miss Braddon's Sir Jasper's
Tenant. Mr. H. A. Dobbs, a confirmed joker,
contemplating a friend with a very highly starched
waistcoat, says: "A rise in the market price of
starch may be safely predicted by all who behold
Spinner's waistcoat " (") The imperfection in Spin-
ner would be, I should say, æsthetic inferiority
(imperfection of Sect. I., Class II.), while the
attendant condition exaggerated is the effect
which the consumption of an extra ounce or so
of starch would have upon the market price.
This exaggeration, like the previous one, is not
a phase contrary to the laws of nature, and con-
sequently the same remarks as were made in the
former instance respecting the genuineness of the
professed belief in the reality of the phase, would
apply in this case.
An extension of an attendant condition is seen
in Mr. P. W. Clayden's biographical work, Rogers
and his Contemporaries. Quoting Mrs. Kemble,
Mr. Clayden says, "Mr. Rogers stood before the
offending edifice (a highly inartistic addition to
Mrs. Grote's house at Burnham Beeches) survey-
ing it with a sardonic sneer which I should think
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
157
even brick and mortar must have found it hard to
bear." () The imperfection noted would seem to
be a certain want of dignity in showing con-
tempt so largely by facial expression, while the
phase of novelty, the item of interest, is the
extension of the influence of the contempt from
human beings, whom it might reach, to objects
not accessible to contempt, viz., the bricks and
mortar.
Irony forms a variety of this group, using the
word irony in what it seems to me may be re-
garded its strict sense, viz., the indication to a
person, by inference, not expression, of combined
moral and risible inferiority in him, or, though
this description of irony is found very rarely,
of risible imperfection solely. It presents an
exaggeration of the procedure noted to a degree
making the exaggeration obvious to persons in
general; a degree sometimes reasonably possible
of realization and sometimes not, but, in common
with exaggerations in general, legitimate of pre-
sentation in the latter case equally with the
former, by reason of the laws of hyperbole.
Instances of this form of ridicule may be left for
Chapter XI., where irony is discussed together
with satire and sarcasm, by reason of a common
element of moral inferiority being-with the
158 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
small exception above mentioned in regard to
irony-associated with these three processes.
(10) OBVIOUSLY exaggerated similes applied to
imperfections-that is, similes applicable only to
obviously exaggerated degrees of the respective
imperfections, and thus beyond the limits of
substantially rational comparison. These, it would
seem, are phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2 in
virtue of a remoteness from the ordinary range
which the mind, if engaged in a search for a
comparison, would take under natural conditions,
viz., the range of substantially reasonable com-
parisons only, but which range convention pro-
bably more often than not prompts it to dis-
regard when seeking a comparison. Almost all
the amusing similes produced are of this descrip-
tion.
The generic imperfections are exhibition of
defective common sense where, as is almost
always the case, profession of belief is made in
the full propriety of the simile, that is, belief in
its being a true comparison; and, where this is
not done, and the simile is confessedly presented
as a defective comparison, mental inferiority,
short of defective common sense, in respect of
the voluntary departure from the regions of this
lastly mentioned quality.
Except for the laws of hyperbole, these similes,
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
159
as it appears to me, would be without legitimacy
of presentation, by reason of their not being sub-
stantially reasonable comparisons. Under these
laws, however, they receive legitimacy of pre-
sentation; not, as it seems to me, in a direct
manner, but indirectly in virtue of the object of
comparison being legitimate of presentation in
whatever degree of exaggeration.
(11) ILLUSTRATION No. 6, Chapter XI.,-given
there because of the example of sarcasm which
the incident affords-is the only incident (5) I know
of exemplifying the group, in this class, of phases
of invariable immediate unlimited * class connec-
tion; phases not reasonably possible of represent-
ing a reality and thus not definitely presented by
the events of the occasion, but having legitimacy
of presentation by reason of the extravagance of
imagination permitted by the laws of ridicule.
CLASS II.
(12) IN the incidents composing class II., the
phase of novelty has a more or less sensible con-
nection with the event of the occasion, but is
without legitimacy of presentation from its being
either (1) beyond the limits of reasonable possi-
bility of realization and not receiving legitimacy
of presentation from being sanctioned by the
* For the precise sense in which this word is used, see class II.
་
160 ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
·
general laws of ridicule, or from being an
exaggeration by way of irony or otherwise (when
the laws of hyperbole give it legitimacy of pre-
sentation, whether it be reasonably possible of
realization or not), or (2) a phase which is a
reality but is altogether inappropriate of presen-
tation.
This class, it would seem, contains only one
group of incidents, viz., those in which the phase
of novelty has an invariable immediate unlimited
class connection with the event of the occasion,
this term being used to embrace all those phases.
of invariable immediate class connection which
have some sensible connection with the events of
the occasion, while not being reasonably possible
of realization, or while being realities, in any way
appropriate of presentation. Such of these phases,.
however—as already implied-as have legitimacy
of presentation under the laws of ridicule or of
hyperbole, take place in class I.
The phases form, like the group in class I.,
two divisions, improbable explanations constitut-
ing the first, and what we may call worthless
surprises, the second. Illustrations of the first
division are seen in a passage from a work by
Claude Tillier, a French humorist and satiric
writer. A certain bishop, on a visitation, arrives
at the house of one of his clergy an hour too
soon; and as explanation of the cause of this cir-
NOVELTY No. 2 (PART III.).
161
cumstance we have offered the ideas of the Devil
having put forward the bishop's watch, (6) or the
horses making unaccustomed speed from knowing
the importance of the person behind them (7).
In illustration of the second division we may
alter one or two of the incidents of humour by
surprise in class I. We can suppose the starter
of a field of runners-illustration No. 22, Part II.
-to say, after "one, two," not two-and-a-half,
but some number above three (8). Such a phase is
not legitimate, in virtue of being wholly inappro-
priate, of presentation, since by no possible prin-
ciples can an excuse be found for preceding the
number three by a higher one. Again, if the
inquiry-No. 21, Part II.—“ What do you think
that man is worth ?" had been followed by the
mention of some impossibly large amount (9), we
should have a phase without legitimacy of pre-
sentation, because it is not possible of represent-
ing a reality.
•
K
CHAPTER VII.
ILLUSTRATION OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY NO. 1.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL novelty No. 1, it will be remem-
bered, is a novelty attaching on occasion to certain
mental inferiorities by reason of the existence of an
excuse for the imperfection. The phases possessing
this novelty may be divided into two classes. The
particular description of the first class, which is
much the larger of the two, is the accompaniment
of the mental inferiority, which is usually of con-
siderable magnitude, by some excuse for the error,
or by some circumstance of the nature of an excuse,
the former of which makes the error in reality,
and the latter gives it some appearance of being,
wholly natural of production, that is to say, wholly
natural of serious exhibition by a person either in
full possession of all his faculties at the time, or in
possession of them to such extent as precludes
total absence of mind.
The excuse, or circumstance of the nature of
one, in this first class, is of two descriptions,
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 163
the first consisting in some principle applicable
in general features to the imperfection, and to
that extent correctly apprehended by the ex-
hibitor of the imperfection, but not applicable
to it in its particular features; or in some oc-
casional circumstance, involving no imperfection
in the exhibitor of the risible phase produced,
and corresponding with it in general but not in
particular features. An excuse of this descrip-
tion may be called a circumstance of general
affinity with the imperfection. The second de-
scription of excuse consists in the imperfection
being the result of procedure which under ordinary
circumstances would involve no imperfection, or
but an inconsiderable degree of it. Of course for
the observer to apprehend the circumstantial
novelty of the imperfection, it is necessary that he
should perceive the excuse, or-though the one word
excuse may be used for both-the circumstance
allied to it. It is, however, usually quite obvious,
and indeed is sometimes presented by the situa-
tion itself.
As regards the degrees of value of the incidents
of this class, these it would seem are determined,
sometimes by the degree of the imperfection, and
sometimes by the strength of the excuse.
Taking in illustration imperfections with excuses
of the first description, and being in reality wholly
164
ILLUSTRATION OF
natural of serious production, we have an instance,
though the excuse is of the weakest, in Sir John
Falstaff's answer to the Chief Justice when accused
of living in great infamy: "He that buckles him
in my belt cannot live in less." (1) The imper-
fection is the defective common-sense (Sect. 1,
Class II. of imperfection) shown in the supposition
professed that a stout person is justified in living
infamously; while the circumstance of general
affinity with the imperfection is the fact that stout
persons are not to be judged in all respects like
those of average girth. The principle, however,
does not give the particular exemption Sir John
claims, viz., exemption from censure for living in
infamy.
A gentleman whose watch had stopped, made
the remark that he must have it cleaned.
"Oh,
no, papa," said one of the children, "I'm sure it
can't want cleaning, for I cleaned it myself this
morning with soap and water." (2) Here the
mistake is in cleaning a watch as one would the
hands or face (of the individual, not of the watch
itself). Minute particles of soap, which would not
enter into the calculations of the youthful amateur,
would derange the machinery, and it is a reason-
able presumption that a very definite proportion
of the towel was left to play a part in the watch's
interior. The excuse for the error is in the fact
that soap and water are commonly used for clean-
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 165
ing purposes, whence a child's mind might suppose
they were efficacious for cleaning anything.
A person of precise and formal tendencies de-
siring a child when speaking of a dickybird to use
the word "Richardbird," (3) commits error in
supposing that the prefix "dicky" is used for the
sake of its signification, viz., a particular proper
name, whereas it is really used only on account
of the euphony and familiarity of expression;
whereby to give the signification by the use of the
orthographically correct word Richard, by which
the euphony and familiarity of aspect in the word
dicky are lost, serves no purpose whatever. The
excuse for the error is the circumstance, of general
affinity with the imperfection, that if this familiar
abbreviation were not used in this exceptional
connection, but under ordinary circumstances, it
would be reasonable to prefer the correct word to
the abbreviation.
In A Family Affair, by the late Hugh Conway,
Frank Carruthers, for some purpose of illustration,
ascribes to certain pieces of bread the personalities
of James the First and his descendants through
the female side; a proceeding which, although it
is strictly a nonsensical statement, is convention-
ally regarded as non-risible from its serving a
rational object, that of facilitating explanation.
Subsequently, however, we read that presently the
butler came in "and swept away James the First
166
ILLUSTRATION of
and his descendants through the female side." (4)
This latter statement is a risible item of nonsense,
the fictitious personalities being retained when the
occasion giving the employment of the nonsense
its conventional rationality has passed away, the
occasion on which the bread is secondly spoken of
being one calling for mention of the pieces in
no other than their actual character. The im-
perfection constituting the phase of circumstantial
novelty No. 1 is the novelist's ostensible impression
that a reference to the pieces of bread as James
the First and his descendants is here also sanc-
tioned by convention-is here also a non-risible
(instead of a risible) item of nonsense; the excuse
being the circumstance, having a general affinity
with the imperfection, that at a previous time the
pieces of bread were appropriately called James
the First and his descendants.
We have two phases of this class in a reflection,
or rather professed reflection, with which I was
once favoured, and which I give here, concerning
the attitude in which a joke on a metaphor—
destroying as it would the value of the expression
as a figure of speech-might be received by the
abstraction Convention, as the ordainer or approver
of metaphors as figurative expressions. "Extorting
possibly," I quote from my friend's remarks,
omitting context, "a reluctant admiration even
from Convention herself. It is not a remark,'
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 167
we can imagine Convention saying, 'of which J
altogether approve, for you know I am concerned
in the expressions such as you have jested upon
being useful as figures of speech, but I will not
deny that the idea shows ingenuity.'" (5)
This passage will serve at the same time as an
instance of one of the many varieties of dry
humour; though it takes but a very moderate
position in the matter of value.
The first of the two phases of novelty consists
in the speaker's supposing that the abstraction
Convention-whom he assumes has the capacity
of recognizing the merit of a joke on a metaphor
-has, by reason of her being the authorised
ordainer or approver of metaphors, an individual
bias in favour of, a personal interest in, the
retention of the orthodox use of the figure of
speech, and consequent exclusion of a joke upon
it; instead of impartially weighing the value of
the joke against the value of the serious use of
the metaphor. It is needless to say that if we do
not regard Convention as an entity having no
other existence but that of a president over the
orthodox use of metaphors, in which case she
would disapprove of a joke in toto,-and the
exhibitor of this imperfection does not thus
regard her, since he supposes her as taking some
pleasure in the joke,-Convention has no such
bias. For under these circumstances Convention
168
ILLUSTRATION OF
•
is simply an expression representing the interests
in one direction (that of metaphors) of persons-
Society in general-who have also, as in the ap-
preciation of jokes, interests in others; interests
which, whatever the direction may be, are
impartial-are in proportion to the intrinsic
value of the production. To state the excuse for
the imperfection;-The exhibitor of course re-
cognizes that Convention, the president over
metaphors in their serious use, represents a single
interest only of a Society which has various
interests. And he recognizes that the interest of
individual members of Society-himself or another
person-in the serious use of metaphors, is quite
unbiassed. But the designation of this interest.
of Society by the term Convention-a special
title, and with, if we like, a capital C-while no
evidence of its being in reality a more important
interest than that which Society has in jokes,
gives a certain appearance of its being, although
only one of various interests, yet more important
than those not thus honoured; is a circumstance
of general affinity with a real importance.
To speak now of the second phase of novelty,--
the passage is worded, it will be observed, as if
the joke spoken of was the first confliction with
the ordinance of metaphor which Convention
had ever met with. It is this erroneous supposi-
tion that forms the phase of novelty.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 169
The fact of there being on the occasion calling
forth this reflection, no positive mention of any
joke but the one in question having been placed
before Convention, forms a phase of general
similarity to—and thus excusing-the assumption
that Convention has had no such experience (an
assumption which could not be naturally made of
any human being, but which can be so made
when we take humanity's collective interest in
one direction and call it Convention, notwith-
standing we credit her with humanity's general
powers of perception, ascribing to her, as we do,
power to recognize ingenuity in a joke).
The phraseology by which this second item of
circumstantial novelty is exhibited, is, like most
intentional humour whose value does not consist
in brilliance or richness, more or less insidiously
worded, is the very opposite of a clear indication
of where the imperfection lies. The imperfection
is found in the words "altogether" and "I will
not deny." The word "altogether," while by no
means a clear indication that Convention is in
doubt what precise degree of approval to give an
idea conflicting with her ordinance but at the
same time showing ingenuity, yet implies that
she had this doubt; a state of mind of course in-
compatible with any general experience of jocular
ingenuity conflicting with a serious ordinance.
And "I will not deny" (that the idea shows
170
ILLUSTRATION OF
ingenuity), while being in no way a clear indica-
tion that she thinks she might more or less
properly refuse to consider any degree of ingenuity
a justification for a remark conflicting with an
established ordinance like metaphor, yet implies
this-is equivalent to "I might refuse" (she
knowing, our humorist supposes, nothing of joking
being an established practice) "even to look at
your idea from the point of view of what ingenuity
it may have."
There is an anecdote of Charles Lamb being
stopped one morning on his way to the city by
Coleridge, who proceeded to commit what we may
call a metaphysical assault upon him. Lamb,
whose interests for more than one reason lay in
the direction of escape, ingeniously cut off the
button wherewith Coleridge had apparently
secured him for a permanency, and, unnoted by
the other, went his way. Returning in the even-
ing, he found Coleridge in the same place, the
button in his hand, and, as to the argument, the
seemingly hopeless antagonists of the morning,
metaphysics and science, religion and science, the
two together, or metaphysics religion and science-
all three, completely reconciled (6).
It is of course a misstatement to speak of seeing
opposing views or principles reconciled, if one has
not followed the process by which the reconcilia-
tion has been effected. But we have a phase of
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 171
general affinity with the imperfection, an excuse
for speaking thus, in the circumstance that with
individuals who have quarrelled, their manner
alone can show us that they are reconciled, with-
out our knowing how the reconciliation was
brought about.
in a
This phase of general affinity is only needed
when we take the sentence in the anecdote in the
strict sense of personal assurance of the recon-
ciliation; for if we regard the words in
colloquial or idiomatic sense, they mean no more
than that Lamb finds that Coleridge considers he
has completely cleared away the difficulties; a
wholly sensible statement.
The verbal mistake is sometimes made, but
perhaps more often merely entered upon, and
perceived and arrested before complete, of con-
veying the opposite idea to what is intended by
presenting the words necessary for the intended
idea in a wrong order, but one which closely
resembles the right one, and is, moreover, a gram-
matical arrangement of words. Probably a not
uncommon occasion of a mistake of this kind is
where the respective parts of a compound sentence
contain two possessive pronouns the substantives
belonging to which are diametrically opposed;
the mistake lying in transposing the two
pronouns, through a confusion made possible
(while it requires a circumstance of "general
172
ILLUSTRATION OF
affinity" to make it wholly natural) by the
connection which each
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general grammatical
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possesses with the substantive belonging, on the
particular occasion, to the other one. Thus,
taking an illustration from a novel called The Heir
Expectant, a person addressing the legatee of a
deceased uncle, has the intention of saying,
"What has been your loss" (the presumably
lamented death, though the uncle was eighty-
seven, and no very amiable character) "is his
gain (in the shape of spiritual welfare). While
his actual words are-what indeed, if the sentence
begun had been completed, is an unquestionable
truth in one direction at least-"What is his loss
is your" (7)- gain,' he is about to say,
(7)—' but
corrects himself; "What has been your loss has
been his gain, I mean." The originally intended
sentence is of course a circumstance of close
affinity with the half-uttered erroneous expression.
Indication of temporary ignorance of the name
of an intimate friend, with whom, moreover, one
is actually in the course of conversation at the
time, is, of course, an extreme degree of imperfec-
tion. Such an imperfection is commonly shown
only when one's attention is totally abstracted
from the circumstances of the moment, and
the indication of ignorance consequently made
mechanically. There is then not what can be
called an excuse for the imperfection, but a special
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 173
cause for it, in the total absence of mind. There
are, however, times when this imperfection may
be naturally exhibited without complete abstrac-
tion, viz., occasions when there is a partial
absence of mind, and some circumstance arises
giving an excuse for the error, whence the im-
perfection has circumstantial novelty. Samuel
Rogers, the banker and poet, had mentioned to a
very absent-minded friend of his-a Mr. Maltby—
that at a recent party a lady had come up to him
and asked him if his name was not Rogers.
"And
was it?" said the other (8). The excuse here seems
to be that since usually one must be ignorant of a
large proportion of all communications made by
another person to a third party in one's absence, a
permanent fact, such as a name, might be
instinctively regarded as one of the former
items of information by a person giving only a
divided attention to the matter.
The imperfections which present an appearance
only of being wholly natural of production consist
mainly, it would seem, of expectations of events
contrary to the plainest principles of human
procedure, and professions of belief in occurrences.
contrary to the laws of Nature as known to us, the
excuse being the first of the two descriptions.
We have an instance of the former category of
imperfections in a remark made by, I think,
174
ILLUSTRATION OF
Prince Metternich, to his wife:-"I notice that
your bonnets as you buy them gradually get
smaller and smaller, and the bills get larger and
larger. Some day, I expect, the man will bring
nothing but the bill" (9). It is the gradual diminu-
tion in the size of the bonnets without diminution
in the amount of the bills which forms an excuse
for the expectation that a man will ask for a pay-
ment without having any rational grounds for
claiming it; as also for the imperfection ex-
tends in idea to the milliner-for an expectation
by the latter of receiving payment under such
circumstances. Illustrations from the other
category, viz., of professions of belief in occurrences
contrary to the laws of Nature, are found in two
items of what is commonly known as American
humour; the assertion in regard to some tree
that it was so high that it took two men and a
boy to see to the top of it (1º), and again of a piece
of wood that it was painted so like marble that it
sank in the water (¹¹). The excuse for the first belief
is that ability or performance in many respects
increases in proportion to the numbers engaged
in a proceeding; and that for the second, the
endowment of a piece of wood to a very consider-
able extent with the attributes of marble, whence
to ascribe to it a further quality of marble which
it cannot possess, viz., that of great weight, has an
appearance of being quite natural.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 175
Passing to the second description of excuse
the fact that the imperfection is the result of
procedure which under ordinary circumstances
would involve no imperfection, or but an incon-
siderable degree of it; we have instances (12, 13) of
the former category in incidents Nos. 1 and 2,
Chap. VI., Pt. II. Ordinarily a speech unobjec-
tionable in itself would be followed by no un-
desirable consequences, but in these speeches
discourtesy is involved.
It is to be observed that it is not this dis-
courtesy which is the imperfection excused, for the
speaker is not aware at the time of producing his
utterance of having exhibited any phase at all in
the shape of an offensive sequence to his speech.
The imperfection in a measure exercised is the
error of judgment (adventitions inferiority; Sect.
I., Class II. of imperfections) in concluding for a
time, viz., till the speech has been made, that the
words are innocuous.
Discourtesy, as is shown in Chapters IV. and
VIII. (Sect. VI.), is one of those phases (of which
there are not more than two or three descriptions
in all) which are at once risible and the reverse of
risible in the exhibitor; risible in virtue of loss of
dignity, and the reverse of risible in virtue of
being an offence to another.
An incident from the other category is seen in
a schoolboy's conclusion, after a sum in arithmetic,
176
ILLUSTRATION OF
that several million yards of wall paper would be
required for an ordinary sized room (14). As to the
excuse, a large number of sums done as a process.
of education are dissociated from the affairs
of practical life, whence a mistake is the imper-
fection of an excess or deficiency of figures solely,
an imperfection which is compatible with common
sense, and procedure which cannot have the
principles of common sense applied to it as a test
of approximate correctness. This naturally tends
to the omission of the test of common sense
.when that can be applied.
excuse.
The second and smaller class of circumstantial
novelty No. 1 is composed of risible phases in
the shape of want of discrimination or perception,
from bringing one's defects, risible or moral, into
special prominence, such prominence having a
fully natural cause in the presence of a substantial
There are, it seems to me, two divisions
of this class, the first composed of incidents where,
the magnitude of a risible imperfection in another
being the measure of a risible imperfection in
oneself, such magnitude of imperfection in the
other is expatiated upon, and one's own imperfec-
tion thus voluntarily emphasized; showing the
further imperfection, viz., want of perception,
which I am now concerned with. The second
division is formed of incidents where, superiority
CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1. 177
in oneself in one direction being the measure of
one's inferiority, risible or moral, in another
direction, such superiority is likewise brought into
special prominence, with the result of directing
attention to one's inferiority, and thus exhibiting
the want of perception.
We should have an illustration of the first
division if one of the staff of a newspaper, having
in the regular editor's absence written and
inserted a libellous article, were to descant on a
storm of abuse (imperfection of Sect. VI., Class I.;
loss of the natural intellectual dignity of man)
which came from the editor on discovering what
had been done (1). In producing the libellous
article the writer has shown want of caution
(imperfection of Sect. I., Class II.), and since
the magnitude of the invective shows the measure
of the writer's imperfection, the latter is em-
phasized in proportion as the invective is des-
canted on.
Of the second division instances are given of
want of perception from emphasizing risible and
moral infirmities respectively, one of each. The
first is Mrs. Gamp's reply to Betsey Prig, in
Martin Chuzzlewit, when at the celebrated tea
drinking Mrs. Prig asks the other if she knows
whom she is speaking to: "Aperiently to Betsey
Prig. Aperiently so" (16). The word "aperiently "
N
178 CIRCUMSTANTIAL NOVELTY No. 1.
is a risible imperfection in the shape of defective
pronunciation, repeated, and thus brought into
special prominence, presumably because-this
forming the excuse for the repetition-of its
graceful rhythm, or if not for that reason, at any
rate because it is a more or less imposing word.
An instance of one's giving special prominence
to a moral inferiority in himself is seen in a
passage from Cecil's Tryst, by Mr. James Payn,
where the manager of a transpontine theatre
plumes himself, in the presence of the author, on
being able to bring out a play by him with (an
emergency having arisen) no more than one day
available for rehearsal; not seeing that much in
the same proportion to the scantiness of rehearsal
is, injustice done by him to the author's reputa-
tion. "Not one of my company," said Mr.
Bingles, in triumph (addressing the author him-
self on the day of performance) "knew a line of it
yesterday morning " (17).
CHAPTER VIII.
DETAILED ILLUSTRATION OF RISIBLE PHASES
(CLASS I.).
I HAVE now to show by detailed illustration, in
this and the next two chapters, the several forms
of risible imperfection, in the three general
phases of retrogression, experience of obstruction
of legitimate progress, and inferiority (not being
moral).
The first Section of Class I. comprises, as
stated, imperfection as follows:-Diminution,
depreciation in value, or total loss (by such means
as obviously give no return or prospect of return
in value) of valuable property owned; or evidence
of the possession of an expectation or of a prospect
of such diminution, depreciation, or loss. Imper-
fections of this kind, when the property is of a
material description, are caused by such means as
forcible deprivation, threats, the operation of
180
ILLUSTRATION OF
inanimate Nature, or our own inadvertence solely.
When loss of material property is accompanied by
no feature of interest, the appeal to the risible
faculties made by the incident would not be of
any substantial force, but merely of a mechanical
nature. But even this appeal would be over-
powered by the feeling of sympathy (inconsider-
able, of course, when the loss is trivial, but still
existent) or, where sympathy is absent, by the
sense that it is called for by the loss, making it
unseemly for one to smile. When interest attaches
to the loss (not being individual interest from
some personal animosity) it lies in the presence of
an imperfection in another direction, more or less
noticeable, or of ingenuity (first species) in
effecting the deprivation, or of both combined.
We have an incident showing the combination of
imperfection (in the shape of mental inferiority)
of a moderately noticeable degree, and ingenuity,
in the well-known "confidence trick," by which
two confederates delude an inexperienced person
into parting with his money, one confederate pro-
fessing to be unknown to the other and trusting
him out of his sight with money, which the other
duly returns to repay, the dupe being then
induced to do the like with his money, when the
recipient, of course, absconds (¹). Here, in addition
to the loss of money, there is inferiority in the
matter of acquirement of experience of the world,
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 181
and ingenuity—that of the original inventor of the
trick. In these cases where there are incidental
features of interest in themselves, these neces-
sarily attract some attention, even though we may
sympathise with the loser. While if the loss is
quite inappreciable, the occasion is one on which
unalloyed pleasure may be taken.
Expenditure of energy, mental or physical, with-
out a corresponding or any return, one form of
which expenditure is shown when one is startled,
would come under the category of loss of material
property.
Deprivation of valuable property made in
punishment for injustice or for non-fulfilment of
duty would, as I have before mentioned, be ex-
cluded from the category of risible imperfections
as being counterbalanced by previous gain from
the injustice.
The immaterial property, the forfeiture, de-
privation, loss, or absence of which indicates im-
perfection, is such as expectations, and prospects,
i.e., appreciable chances, of substantial property
of value; esteem stated to be withheld in conse-
quence of alleged moral inferiority which it is
plain to all but the accuser, and to him too in the
case of accusations not intended to be believed in,
does not exist (producing humour because there
has been no injustice to give a counterbalancing
·
182
ILLUSTRATION OF
gain); and one or more of our own faculties, for
a time or permanently.
The expectations of substantial property of
value, the destruction of which expectations
causes risible imperfection, would be those created
by promises of free gifts. It is, of course, non-
fulfilment, or intimation of the withdrawal, of the
promise which effects a destruction of the ex-
pectation.
The prospects, i.e., appreciable chances of such
gifts are another form of immaterial property,
and the withdrawal of the promise of the gift,
whether intimated or not to the former possessor
of the chance, destroys the possession.
The intimation of disbelief in any statement
which seems false also destroys a substantial, that
is, appreciable expectation-real, or, if the dis-
credited statement seems a jocular falsehood,
ostensible only-of belief in the statement, and
the prospect or chance of such belief. But this
destruction of expectation and chance, or de-
struction of chance only if the presenter of the
statement is not told that he is disbelieved (thus,
while losing his chance, possessing an expectation,
of indefinite degree of strength) has no appear-
ance of a risible imperfection, because such loss,
losses, or prevention of gain as might be occa-
sioned by the disbelief expressed or unexpressed,
would have the appearance of no retrogression, nor
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 183
of legitimate progress obstructed, but of depriva-
tion of apparently unjust gain, or obstruction of
apparently unjust progress. (When the state-
ment, while seeming false, is true, there is a risible
imperfection existent, but not exhibited; belong-
ing to Sect. III. of this Class-experience of
obstruction, by the disbelief, of legitimate progress:
this imperfection can only become apparent by
proof being given of the statement being true,
upon which proof the imperfection ceases. So
long, therefore, as a true statement seems false,
there is no appearance of risible imperfection-
though it exists unexhibited, in the shape of this
obstruction. This same risible imperfection in
the shape of obstruction of legitimate progress is
of course exhibited, as well as existent, when a
discredited statement not only is but seems true.)
The destruction, then, of an apparent substantial
expectation, real or ostensible only, of success of
what seems an attempt, serious or jocular, at
deceit, or the destruction of the chance only, does
not, as such a destruction, cause any appearance of
risible imperfection in the loser. But inasmuch
as he exhibits an error of judgment-real, if the
attempt is serious, and ostensible only, if it is
jocular-in entertaining a substantial expectation
of credence (this error being what I call an inci-
dental inferiority) and also exhibits a further and
necessarily real error of judgment (adventitious
184
ILLUSTRATION OF
inferiority) in concluding, as he necessarily must,
that there is some chance, though not substantial,
of credence, he exhibits imperfections which are
risible. These risible imperfections are also ex-
hibited when a real disbelief in a statement
which there is no good reason for discrediting is
intimated. They come under Sect. I., Class II.,
and will be found there referred to.
Intimations of the withdrawal of esteem in
consequence of alleged moral inferiority which it
is obvious to others does not exist, may be made
under conditions of two kinds; the first, when the
circumstances are such as to leave no reasonable
doubt that the intimation is jocular, i.e., not
intended to be believed as a true indication of the
opinion of the speaker; and the second, when the
intimation is made for another purpose than jocu-
larity, upon grounds which do not appear to
others reasonable enough to warrant any suspicion
of the alleged inferiority, and indeed may be of
the most transparently invalid nature.
Of the jocular deprivations of esteem, we have
instances in the application of the terms scoundrel,
villain, etc., for offences which are at once trivial
and unintentional.
Of deprivation for other purposes than jocu-
larity we should have an instance where a person
making an obviously inoffensive remark is accused
by another, in for instance the familiar meta-
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 185
phorical language of putting the finger in the pie,
of exceeding his or her rights in making the
speech.
Time is, of course, a property of value as a
means for the acquisition of other things. To
procure, by falsehood or other means, the occupa-
tion of this, accompanied by more or less expen-
diture of energy-further valuable property-in a
useless manner, is with children a common form
of joke, coming under this category of loss of
valuable property without return. Getting one to
listen to worthless or superfluous information is
one variety of this kind of jocularity. One's own
judgment, uninfluenced by any intention in others
to mislead, may also produce the like result.
Where, as is the case in some incidents of the two
lastly mentioned descriptions, unprofitable expen-
diture of time is due to mental inferiority in the
loser of the time-imperfection of Sect. I., Class
II.—then, although imperfection of the present
class and section is shown, it is a subordinate and
inappreciable feature of the incident, the mental
inferiority being the prominent feature.
Interruption by speech or movement produces
this waste of time, and may be done either as a
practical joke or seriously for other objects.
Section II.-Possession of property giving
pain, or evidence of an expectation or of a
prospect of this, without compensation in some
186
ILLUSTRATION OF
form. No illustrations, I think, of this form of
imperfection are needed. Here, as with pre-
viously mentioned incidents, where the issues.
are at all serious the appeal to the feeling of
sympathy precludes laughter; and it is chiefly
in humorous fiction only that pain, substantial
or in prospect, can with propriety be referred to
jocularly. As regards pain given as punishment
for moral inferiority, the gain from the offence
would, as with punishment by deprivation of
valuable property, be excluded from the category
of risible imperfection, from implying a counter-
balancing gain from the offence, though as
punishment may at times be in excessive pro-
portion to the offence, a general principle of
equivalents may be contradicted to any extent
by the actual events.
Section III.-Experience of obstruction of
legitimate progress. This of course also involves
imperfection of Sect. I., in the shape of loss, for
a greater or less period, of time, energy, and it
may be, money, without even a bare equivalent
in return; but it may, I presume, be said that
the appearance of the latter imperfection is
merged in the more comprehensive one of ob-
struction of progress. The following are perhaps
the only forms of this imperfection which need
description or mention. Dishonest falsehood, as
stated in Chapter IV., causes, from its implying
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I). 187
the withholding of valuable information, imper-
fection of this description, except, that is, where
the information desired would serve the purpose
of redress of previous injustice, when the result
of a falsehood as regards risibility is the con-
tinuance of the imperfection caused by the
injustice, instead of the statement tending, as it
would if it were true, to the termination of the
imperfection.
An intimation of disbelief, real or professed
only, in a true statement, causes in the presenter
of the statement, provided he has not through
previous dishonesty lost his ordinary right to be
believed, an obstruction of legitimate progress,
exhibited to such as know or believe the state-
ment to be true.
Speaking first of genuine disbelief in a true
statement, the progress obstructed would be of
indefinite degree, varying according to the cir-
cumstances of the case. Where the object of
the statement was some practical benefit, the
progress obstructed would vary, according to
circumstances, from the full amount of such
benefit to a fraction thereof, of any minuteness.
If the owner of a park who was willing to let
persons into it provided the grounds were not
injured by them, were, from disbelieving the
assurance of care given by a trustworthy appli-
cant, to refuse admission to him, the full benefit
188
ILLUSTRATION OF
sought by the latter would be lost in consequence.
If a commission to execute a contract depended
on belief in a statement, and no other profitable
employment of his time was to be found by the
applicant for the contract, the loss would be such
profit as was likely to accrue from the under-
taking sought. If other directions of work were
open to the applicant, the progress lost would be
only that of profitable remuneration for his time,
and-if it were to be used in the execution of the
work and lay uninvested-employment of his
capital, for the period of the negotiations with
the person having the contract for disposal.
While where the result of belief in a statement
would be that a person would gratuitously use
his interest to obtain a contract for the other,
the loss would not be that of the estimated profit
from the contract, but what the interest to be
exerted was worth to the other. In a case where
there is no question of deceit, but a statement is
discredited, as where an item of news is supposed
to be and is given as authentic, but is not believed,
there would be, I should say, a loss of the pleasure
which I presume one may be said to feel in the
acceptance as true of a true item of news com-
municated by him.
As regards disbelief in a piece of news, which
-the disbelief-is professed but not real (a form
of falsehood);-where the falsity of the intimation
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 189
of disbelief is not perceived by the other he loses,
till enlightened, the pleasure just previously men-
tioned. If the intimation is given under circum-
stances allowing no reasonable doubt of the falsity
of the profession (as where the person professing
disbelief is joking and his tone or other circum-
stances point to this) this pleasure would, of
course, not be lost, but at the same time in virtue
of the intimation of disbelief there is an ostensible,
while not real, loss of such pleasure by him.
Where a piece of news is false, and is refused
credence, there would still be an exhibition
(delusive) of obstruction of legitimate progress
to any person who believed the statement to be
true.
In the incident No. 21, Chapter VI., Part I., we
have, as before, obstruction through discredit of
one's speech, with the difference, however, that
the speech is not an individual statement, but a
person's conversation in general. The house,
emptied of so much, is full of echoes, and its
owner's voice returns to him without contradic-
tion;" that is, he receives after an utterance a
return of his own words instead of a contradic-
tion (2). The obstruction (not stated in words, but
indicated by inference) caused by the systematic
contradiction Paterfamilias meets with when the
family are at home, is that of the general progress
resulting from the acceptance of one's speech as
190
ILLUSTRATION OF
correct; such progress being legitimate because a
substantial proportion, at least, of credence to his
utterances is the right of every average indi-
vidual.
The pertinence, or raison d'être, of describing
the head of a family as meeting with constant
contradiction at home, probably lies in the circum-
stance that in real life the head of a family, while
not receiving more contradiction at home than
the other members, yet, being presumably entitled
to a special measure of deference, often receives
less of this than he ought to.
Another form of this imperfection, varying from
a trivial degree upwards, is caused when a person
speaking is interrupted by another utterance made
under the impression, or ostensible impression,
that the last speaker has anticipated the other's
ideas. The imperfection is shown in its slightest
degree when the obstructor is at once interrupted
with the remark that he has not apprehended the
other correctly, and thereon allows him to pro-
ceed. The loss here would be that of the net
benefit, i.e., the benefit after deducting the value
of one's time and trouble, resulting from the
expression of thought, to the other's comprehen-
sion, in respect of the period occupied by the
explanation of the true state of the matter-the
explanation that the obstructionist had misappre-
hended one. On other occasions the obstruction
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.).
191
may be greater, and need to remove it two persons
speaking at once for an objectionable length of
time, or the drowning of the other's voice if he is
specially intent on his own course.
Section IV.-Evidence of absence of some special
property or benefits common to the generality, or
evidence of ownership of such property of less
extent or of less value than that owned by the
generality. The assertion made by Talleyrand,
that the English had a thousand religions and
only one sauce (3), is an instance of the latter form
of humour; and if we alter the remark to the
extent of denying the possession of any sauce to
our nation (4), it will serve as an illustration of the
other form of imperfection. Here the generality
is not one of individuals, but of nations.
Section V.-A less favourable situation than
that of the generality in respect of environment
or external advantages. In the Songs of Singularity,
by the London Hermit, there are the lines-
"He stood on his head by the lone sea shore,
And joy was the cause of the act;
For he felt as he never had felt before,
Insanely glad, in fact.
"And why? In that ship that had left the bay,
His mother-in-law had sailed
To a tropical country far away,
Where tigers and snakes prevailed ” (³).
In this proximity of tigers and snakes there is a
less favourable environment for the lady in respect
192
ILLUSTRATION OF
of animals than pertains to the inhabitants of this
country, whose condition, as that ordinarily coming
under one's observation, would form the standard
to which he would refer the condition of an inhabi-
tant of another country. The dandy of one of the
comic papers, at a time when very tight trousers.
were in fashion, who is represented as saying to a
friend that he could not sit down at the time
because he had on his walking trousers (6), gives
another instance of this humour, the extra tight
clothes constituting an unfavourable environment
from depriving him of the ability, common to the
generality, of sitting down at any time. There
would further be mental inferiority in the want
of common sense shown in the choice of such a
costume, as also, perhaps, of such approximations
to it as may have been worn by the dandies of
real life.
An imperfection of this section is in fact the
sum of imperfections in the form of loss, pain,
etc.-classed under previous sections-which are
caused by the unfavourable situation; these lesser
imperfections being such as painful prospects,
expenditure of extraordinary time and trouble in
securing safety where loss of that is threatened,
and in precluding annoyance in various ways from
the situation. Since, however, in contemplating
one of these general situations we do not resolve it
into the various individual imperfections involved
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 193
or likely to be involved in the situation, but regard
it as indicating a general condition of inferiority,
I have thought that a separate section should be
made of these cases.
The sixth section relates to loss of dignity. The
more ordinary modes in which this is shown would
seem to be the physical, the more especially
intellectual, and the æsthetic.*
Enumerating these modes more particularly, we
find them caused (1) by proceedings unsuited to
the physical conformation of the individual; (2)
by the more especially intellectual imperfections
which constitute violations of class distinctions,
distinctions created by the differences in man's
occupations at different times and in different
places (differences of time and place), those
created by differences of age, and descents from
the natural intellectual dignity of man; and (3)
by descents from the æsthetic degree of perfection
appropriate to the individual, shown by lapses,
avoidable or unavoidable, from the standard
proper to one's class in respect of personal
adornment (slovenliness of dress and accidental
dilapidation in that respect), and in respect of
preservation of natural advantages of personal
* Loss of dignity in the physical and æsthetic directions implies,
where it is voluntary, a loss of intellectual dignity; but since such
small prominence as the latter would have in itself is merged in
that of the physical or aesthetic loss, the imperfections would
seem to be appropriately described in the above manner.
0
194
ILLUSTRATION OF
appearance (inattention to, or accidental deteri-
oration of, the appearance of the skin by not
preserving cleanliness).
Certain exceptional directions in which loss of
dignity may be shown, and the loss of dignity
involved in dishonour, in its general and in its
petty phases, will be referred to separately.
The imperfection caused by a loss of dignity
would seem to be (except as regards lack of moral
dignity) of a twofold description, being composed
of primary and secondary imperfections, as I
should call them.
With loss of dignity in the intellectual* (which
includes the social) and æsthetic divisions, the
primary imperfection is the loss of the superiority
of benefit resulting from procedure or appearance
appropriate to a particular class or station, or to
an occasion of some gravity and importance, over
that resulting from procedure or appearance ap-
propriate only to a lower class or station, or a less
serious occasion.
In undignified bodily movements, such as stand-
ing on the head, turning somersaults, etc., the
primary imperfection lies in various directions.
It would take such forms as loss of time on
account of the inability for the physical actions,
such as walking and ordinary manual labour,
t
* I.e., the more especially intellectual.
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 195
which normally procure man his livelihood, the
greater or less loss of benefit from the sense of
sight (both imperfections of Sect. I., Class I.),
the inability to protect himself from collision
with any approaching objects (a temporary physi-
cal inferiority, and belonging to Sect. I., Class
II.), while there should perhaps be added more
or less loss of command of the thinking faculties,
and the possibility of some measure of physical
injury from the unnatural positions. Further, there
would be æsthetic inferiority from want of grace in
the attitudes. It is probably this latter inferiority
which contributes most to the forcible aspect which
loss of physical dignity presents, though perhaps
the sum total of the other imperfections would at
the same time present a very prominent appear-
ance. Grimaces, I should say, are a form of un-
dignified procedure involving imperfection in a
physical as well as æsthetic direction, the physical
imperfection being expenditure of energy to no
purpose ordinarily.
The secondary imperfection in loss of dignity is
the loss of esteem of the observer which results
from the proceeding, a loss which has a promi-
nence not shown by other imperfections, for the
following reason, viz., that the principles deter-
mining dignified procedure are distinguished by
presenting a broad and general character, making
a correct apprehension of them necessarily a pos-
196
ILLUSTRATION OF
session of everyone having ordinary experience.
Intimations of loss of esteem cause a definite
exhibition of imperfection whatever the defect
or alleged defect on account of which the esteem
is withdrawn may be, but this of course is by
reason of the intimation-the formal evidence of
the loss of esteem which it constitutes.
Very little illustration of the ordinary forms of
loss of dignity, in addition to what I have already
given incidentally, seems required. Instances of
violations of class distinctions, and of those
created by differences of age, need not, I think,
be given. Of procedure undignified by reason of
the character of the occasion on which it is
exhibited, we have illustrations in jocularity on
especially grave occasions—a violation of distinc-
tion of time; and in the performance in the midst
of business conducted more especially by brain
work, of any of the ordinary muscular operations
which are ends, not means; this being a violation
of distinction of place. Loss of the natural
intellectual dignity of man is seen in invective, in
the shape of cursing, abuse, etc. Of the third divi-
sion of undignified phases-descents from æsthetic
propriety, I have already mentioned one descrip-
tion, viz., grimaces, which will I think be enough.
A formally recognized position of elevation
above the generality-a post of eminence-
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.).
197
implies mental superiority in the holder. And
thus any exhibition by him of less dignity than
would ordinarily be shown by the generality
would involve the additional imperfection of
incongruous juxtaposition, an imperfection which
would have an especially forcible aspect when the
loss of dignity is shown in physical procedure.
Hence the effect which the undignified conduct in
judges and other high officials, so often seen in
burlesques, produces.
Passing to the exceptional directions in which
the imperfection may be shown;-On special
occasions and in special places, such as Sundays,
times of festivity, and exceptionally fashionable
resorts, one may hold a higher position in regard
to personal adornment and preservation of natural
advantages of personal appearance, than in ordi-
nary, from dressing better than usual, and pre-
serving exceptional cleanliness, as we may on
these occasions. Hence occurrences-a smut on
the face, for instance-which on ordinary occa-
sions would involve a slight, but not more than a
slight, loss of dignity, will make the loss greater
on these special occasions, from the higher position
of the individual then. Mr. H. C. Pennell, in
Puck on Pegasus, gives an illustration of this in
the lines:-
"I never did the swell
In Regent Street among the beaux,
But smuts the most prodigious fell,
And always settled on my nose (7).
""
198
ILLUSTRATION OF
A person mingling with his social superiors as
an equal, concealing his true position, experiences
loss of the dignity he has assumed if his true
position becomes revealed. The jackdaw of the
fable, stripped of his borrowed plumes, is-substi-
tuting birds for persons-an illustration of this
loss of dignity (9). In a certain comic song an oil
and colour merchant, who, after amassing a
fortune, had gained an entrance into the best
society, conceals his occupation, till one day a
fellow-tradesman rushes up to him in the midst of
his fashionable acquaintances, with the loud and
effusive inquiry-the first, of course, to be made
in humorous fiction under such circumstances, as
it would be the last in real life-" How's business?
What's the price of oils ? "(9)
In dishonourable procedure, as I have men-
tioned in Chapter IV., there is, in addition to the
non-risible imperfection which the injustice of the
proceeding constitutes, a risible imperfection—
lack of the moral dignity of man, causing the
withdrawal of esteem by the observer which
forms one of the phases of contempt.
Loss of intellectual dignity is shown in the
commission of injustice, by way of dishonour or
otherwise, when the nature of the offence from
the intellectual point of view is below that proper
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.).
199
:
to the status of the individual. Such actions are
treated in their moral bearings on their own
demerits in that direction, and the humour of the
intellectual inferiority remains distinct, though,
of course, the seriousuess of the moral aspect
divides our attention more or less with the risible
side of the matter.
A gentleman practising theft on a petty scale,
by the abstraction of any small sum of money or
article of trifling value accessible to him (10), or
any adult making raids upon the store-room for
immediate consumption, after the fashion of a
child (11), shows loss of dignity in this direction.
These proceedings, necessarily acts of injustice,
would also, of course, be acts of dishonour if the
offenders had had trust placed in them in regard
to these matters.
It is said of Queen Elizabeth that the visits she
paid to some of her nobles were made with the
especial object of lessening their too great power,
entailing, as the visits would, heavy expenses on
them (12). This shows dishonour on a petty
scale—as would be all want of honour in matters
of social intercourse-the nobles presumably not
being bound, except by the voluntarily imposed
rules of courtesy, to incur these expenses of
hospitality. The lack of dignity, of course, does
not exist if the Queen had no such intention in
making these visits, but the idea of the imperfec-
•
200
+
ILLUSTRATION OF
tion, a striking one, from its magnitude and
character as being of systematic presentation,
remains.
There is ingenuity of the first species shown if
the Queen had this object in view.
The several varieties of discourtesy are perhaps
the commonest forms of dishonour on a petty
scale.
But little illustration is needed of these offences.
Of the commoner forms of discourteous actions
one or two instances have been incidentally given
in Chapter IV.
Wilful violations of etiquette are, of course,
discourteous, assuming the custom ordained to
be a reasonable one.
The unnecessary communication to others, that
is, the communication from other motives than
the interests of morality, of truths or supposed
truths which would be unpleasant to them-pro-
cedure involving discourtesy-I have already
spoken of in Chapter IV. Where intimations of
this kind are intentionally made, and we think
the other desires to injure, or is indifferent to our
feelings, the moral aspect of the case-the resent-
ment of the offence-would usually overpower the
risibility in the loss of dignity. But where an
unpleasant truth is presented to one, either (1)
jocularly, being then unpleasant rather in form
than in substance (2) from the speaker's ignorance
}
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 201
at the moment of what the words indicated, by
reason of an inference which they bear being not
obvious, or (3) from an erroneous impression in
him that the person he referred to was not
present, the moral aspect of the matter substan-
tially disappears (while remaining, however, in
form) as regards the two first descriptions of
offences, and in the third is less serious than it
would otherwise have been; the thirdly mentioned
offence being, I should say, taken out of the
category of undignified procedure, and remaining
merely an imputation, true or false, of inferiority
of the other to the average individual in the
matter referred to.
Incidents Nos. 1 and 2, Chapter VI., Part II.,
give two illustrations (13, 14) of the second of
these three descriptions of discourtesy, and in-
stances of the other two are not, I think,
necessary.
As regards speech discourteous from its tone,
or from being wanting in the customary phrases of
civility, I have endeavoured in Chapter IV. to
state the import of this phraseology and tone,
and the risible imperfection which speech lacking
in it produces in the person addressed; and no
further reference to the subject seems needed.
There is, besides lack of moral dignity in the
dishonour itself, loss of moral dignity in any
→
202
ILLUSTRATION OF
·
voluntary exhibition of dishonour, not as an act
of repentance but because the exposure is neces-
sary to the attainment of some benefit outweighing
the loss from the risible imperfection. In Miss
Mitford's Life and Letters, Basil Montague is re-
corded as saying, in reference to Dr. Parr's illegible
manuscript," Aye, his letters are illegible, unless
they contain a commission or an announcement
that he is coming to see you, and then no man
can write plainer" (15).
The dishonourable element here is discourtesy
in writing badly when one can write more legibly
-dishonourable because the average individual,
who writes legibly, does not give the bad writer
the trouble in deciphering which the latter gives
him. Dr. Parr, however, practises the discourtesy
on a noticeably larger scale than those who, being
able to write legibly, write badly on all occasions;
for they, although gaining on the whole more than
they lose by careless writing, yet, when clear writ-
ing is of extra importance to them, as on such
occasions as the above, write as usual, and take the
risk. Of course, where the bad writer may be con-
sidered as compensating the average, i.e., the
legible writer, in any way, direct or indirect, for
his trouble in deciphering the bad caligraphy,
there is no discourtesy exercised.
The voluntary exhibition of dishonour by Dr.
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.).
203
Parr-the lack of moral dignity which the anec-
dote is quoted to illustrate-is of course in the
revelation of the ability to write well.
A very definite proportion of the interest this
incident has for us is due, no doubt, to the exist-
ence of these occasional conditions making legible
writing of special importance, which compel the
defaulter to disclose his dishonourable practice
under penalty of losing these substantial benefits.
In his history of Frederick the Great of Prussia,
Carlyle relates that at the beginning of Frederick's
invasion of Silesia, the Burgomaster of Grunberg,
on being summoned to deliver the key of the Town
Gate for the transit of a Prussian army, says,
"Deliver the key! I dare not. There is the key
lying, but to give it! You are not the Queen of
Hungary's officer, I doubt." The Prussian officer
then takes the key. A like process happens when
the army pass out of the town next day. The
Burgomaster will not touch the key, but it may
be put back (16). This, too, shows loss of moral
dignity, in the Burgomaster's voluntary exhibition
-unavoidable of course if he is to effect his main
object-of his intention to delude his sovereign
into supposing, upon the strength of the state-
ment that the key had not been given up, that all
available force had been used to bar the army's
passage through the town.
204
ILLUSTRATION OF
This incident presents the additional element of
ingenuity of the first species.
use.
Section VII.-Appropriation of articles of utility
to other than their ordinary purposes. All appro-
priation of articles, whether natural products or
of human manufacture, to other than their ordin-
ary use, it appears to me constitutes, by reason
of man's being normally interested in their appro-
priation to their ordinary use, exhibition of
imperfection on the part, not of any particular
individual, but of mankind in general; the form
of imperfection being that of depreciation of the
value of the property from the fact that while it
is thus misused it cannot be applied to its ordinary
While in so far as the articles may be un-
fitted for the exceptional use they are put to, it
seems to me there would be further imperfection
on the part of the person using them of the form
mentioned in Sect. IV. of this Class-possession
of property of less value than that owned by the
generality. It is true that the proper article for
the purpose here in view might be one such as
many persons would not be in possession of, but
this is because the purpose for which it is suited
is not one which they have in view. Where the
purpose is entertained, a person is normally in
possession of the proper article for it. The term
generality, therefore, here means the generality
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS I.). 205
of persons who have such purpose in view, and
who would have the particular article suited for
effecting it.
To play at bowls with apples or potatoes, to use
a long roll of bread or a cucumber as a broad-
sword, to bowl a plate like a hoop, would present
humour of this kind.
CHAPTER IX.
DETAILED ILLUSTRATION OF RISIBLE PHASES
(CLASS II).
THE second class of imperfection comprises a
very large proportion of the risible phases giving
appreciable amusement to us. The imperfections
composing the first section, we have seen, are—
Exhibition in transient or permanent form, that is,
by transient or permanent productions, of capabili-
ties, acquirements, or endowments, of an inferior
degree; exhibition of the total absence of capa-
bilities, acquirements, or endowments in some
direction; and exhibition of absence of any capa-
city for enjoyment common to the generality.
I take first the mental imperfections which
may be called adventitious inferiorities, and which
consist mainly in the falsification of the judgment
in its various forms. An error of judgment, while
always constituting an adventitious inferiority,
does not necessarily imply intrinsic inferiority, for
where there are no data for forming a correct con-
clusion the actual course of events may be other than
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.).
207
The
what was indicated by human probabilities.
adventitious inferiority shown by a falsification of
judgment is in relation to anyone in possession
(whether in virtue of his own ability or otherwise)
of the knowledge which would have been required
to form a correct conclusion. Thus the cleverest
and the dullest person, when in possession of the
full bearings of the matter, are on a par in possess-
ing alike this adventitious superiority to the other
when he formed his conclusion. The person
making the error would not be excluded from the
number of those to whom the adventitious in-
feriority in respect of the mistake might be shown,
but would, on becoming aware of the mistake, be
in the position of superiority to his former self.
Although this inferiority is always a more or
less prominent feature in the incident, the interest
in it must be of an uniform and slight degree.
When appreciable pleasure is given (of course on
intellectual, not moral grounds) on occasions of
mistakes of judgment, it comes from other
sources, such as a recondite nature in data exist-
ing for correctness of judgment; the presenta-
tion, as the result of the error, of some imperfec-
tion of considerable magnitude of degree; or
intrinsic incapability shown in the judgment,
that is, the judgment being one that a person of
average intelligence would not have formed.
If we except, as being a special form of these
208
ILLUSTRATION OF
imperfections, the falsification of the instinctive
judgment by the recipient formed for the moment
or longer on the presentation of an "event of
the occasion" having a phase of circumstantial
novelty No. 2 specially connected with it, the
commonest form in which error of judgment is
shown is probably the falsification of conclusions
in reference to particular matters and upon which
some practical issues depend. Errors of judg-
ment in particular matters not involving material
issues are found, on occasion, where the judgment
was elicited as a test of mental ability.
Errors of judgment may be regarded as form-
ing two divisions; the first that of cases where
there were data accessible for forming correct
conclusions, and the second that of cases without
such material. The speeches (1, 2) in incidents
1 and 2, Chap. VI., Part II.-injudicious be-
cause involving discourtesy (imperfection of Sect.
VI., Class I.)-belong to the first division. The
above-mentioned falsifications of instinctive judg-
ments consequent on the presentation of phases
of novelty with special connections, also belong
to this division; though as the data for correct
conclusions are for the moment definitely re-
moved from the ordinary mental range, these
errors form a category of their own.
There are some errors of this division which
•
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 209
are primarily due to a biassing or other agency,
and which, if such agency were absent, would
indicate intrinsic inferiority of reasoning capa-
bility, but which, with such agency, are taken
out of this latter category, and merely present the
adventitious inferiority. As there are also errors
of this kind belonging to the second division of
erroneous judgments, I propose to deal with the
whole group together, and will accordingly defer
illustrations of such as belong to the first division
till I have arrived at the second division.
Mistakes of judgment of the second division are
those where there was no material accessible for
forming a correct conclusion. These may be sub-
divided into the categories of cases where there
were data accessible indicating a probability in
favour of what proves the right course, and those
where either there were no such data accessible,
or where the probabilities, by which of course we
shape our conduct, are falsified by the event.
Of the first subdivision are the errors indicated
by such hoaxes -jocular impositions upon
another's credulity-as are devised for discover-
ing whether, and it may be how much, intrinsic
inferiority of capacity for estimating probabilities
exists in another, and a proportion (the rest be-
longing to division I.) of those errors, primarily
due to a biassing or other exceptional agency,
P
210
ILLUSTRATION OF
which errors without such agency would indicate
intrinsic inferiority of reasoning power, but which
the exceptional agency takes out of the category
of intrinsic inferiorities. Instances of these will
be given when I have explained the character of
the second subdivision of errors.
To the second subdivision belong the errors
from those hoaxes which, without eliciting exhi-
bition of inferior capacity for estimating a proba-
bility, induce a person to act upon his erroneous
judgment by taking procedure resulting in further
humour, such as the fruitless journeys and the
block resulting from the Berners Street hoax,
which filled that street with persons on every
kind of business, who in the name of a tenant
of one of the houses had been desired to call
there (³); and practical jokes of various kinds.
With some hoaxes where the procedure taken
in consequence of the error is the main object of
the joker, the judgment shown in being deceived
will be of an intrinsically inferior character, and
thus of course belong to the first subdivision.
Illustrating again the first subdivision;-of
jokes which might be made for the sole sake of
the adventitious inferiority-though of course
unprofitable expenditure of time in giving atten-
tion to the joker, and, it may be, time and trouble
in ascertaining the truth from others, is a necessary
result-we should have an instance where a boy
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 211
tells a schoolfellow that a holiday has been
announced, and the other, calculating the chance
of the statement being a hoax quite correctly, yet
not being omniscient, recognises it as possibly
true.(*)
The following is an instance of a judgment not
at the time shown to be erroneous, but expected
soon to be shown so, and belonging to the first or
second subdivision according to what might be
considered the data for a judgment in the matter.
One of the chapters in Mortimer Collins' Vivian
Romance is prefaced by a passage called an
extract, and from an old Play, but which I
understand is a fragmentary composition ascribed
to a complete work as an excuse for its existence,
and of Mr. Collins' own invention. Summed up,
the passage runs, "Did the fellow call me an old
fogey? He shall feel the thrust of an old fogey's
rapier "(5). The judgment formed by the " fellow "
may, I take it, be regarded as being not that there
is the least rational chance of the other challeng-
ing him to a duel, but that if he did he would not
be in the least dangerous. Sir Robert, the speaker,
thinks this conclusion erroneous, and proposes to
prove it so. The adventitious inferiority in the
other is not yet shown, but Sir Robert contem-
plates it by anticipation.
Of cases where the probabilities point to a con-
clusion in one direction, while the event takes
212
ILLUSTRATION OF
another, we have instances in all those conclusions
on occasions of humour by surprise (Chapter VI.,
Part II.), which are not suspended after the first
instant in view of a possible joke; viz., those
absolute instinctive permanent conclusions which
are formed when there is no suspicion of a joke,
and any reasoned conclusions short of the ab-
solute, which recognise the possibility of a joke,
but are formed because there are probabilities in
favour of the event taking the ordinary direction.
Of the more ordinary varieties of this subdivision
it is, I think, scarcely necessary to give illustra-
tion.
There are, as I have mentioned, certain erroneous
judgments, belonging, according to the occasion,
to the first or second division, made by individuals,
or aggregates of persons, of average reasoning
capability, which errors are due to a biassing
agency, and which if such agency had not existed
would have indicated risible inferiority of reason-
ing power-inferiority to the average-and thus
would not have been made without the bias,
except in fiction. Excitement, self-interest, and
the influence of custom, may be mentioned as
illustrations of biassing agencies in the formation
of such judgments. Instances need not be given
of errors by persons of average capability which
in the absence of excitement, or of self-interest,
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 213
would not have been made by them. The circum-
stance that credence may as a rule be given to
what is presented in newspapers illustrates the
thirdly mentioned biassing agency. Without a
biassing element-if, for instance, a statement
were presented under conditions which made it
equally likely, apart from the character of the
statement itself, to be truth or fiction; made, let
us say, on a torn piece of paper which might be
either from a work of fiction or from a periodical
professing to relate real events-a judicious con-
clusion would be formed by the person of average
capability if the conclusion were such as to need
no more than that measure of capability. With
the bias, however, hoaxes presented in newspapers
will occasionally deceive persons of average capa-
bility.
The exceptional agencies other than bias which
may cause erroneous judgments which would not
otherwise be made, are such as forgetfulness,
special ignorance, carelessness, absence of mind,
and abstraction. The feature which distinguishes
these agencies from a bias in connection with an
error of judgment is the circumstance that where
one of these conditions prevails the whole data
for a judgment correct or probably correct are not
possible to be seen by the person taking pro-
cedure, whereas the presence of bias does not
necessarily preclude a proper decision. Thus, to
214
ILLUSTRATION of
take an illustration from a comic paper, if a
person has stowed away some small parcels on his
head and under his hat, and forgets the circum-
stance, it is not possible that he should take steps
to avoid places where he may meet lady friends,
before whom his hat should be removed (6). If one
were ignorant that some compound was an expen-
sive drug, and supposed it to be a common
phosphate such as bone dust, he could
could not
conclude that it would be injudicious to manure a
field with it (7). And if abstraction prevented one
from thinking definitely what he was saying,
he could not conclude it was injudicious to say
"Yes" to a question which was injudiciously
answered by that word (³).
Of course bias or one of these other agencies
may cause an error which even without the
exceptional agency would not indicate intrinsic
inferiority of reasoning power, as where an error
which the generality would make under ordinary
circumstances and which a person of superior
reasoning power would not, is made by the latter,
through the presence of an exceptional agency.
But since without this agency the error would
indicate no intrinsic inferiority of reasoning
capacity, the agency does not, as in the other
instances, present itself for attention as a factor
in the commission of the error, and the only
noticeable feature is the adventitious inferiority
KISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 215
in the error, with any risible imperfection which
may result from the conclusion formed.
•
All belief in falsehood is of course error of
judgment, of the first or second subdivision
according to whether the probabilities pointed to
distrust or belief in the statement. The error
of course would not be proved till the falsity of
the statement was proved; while for the error to
be suspected by third parties it would be requisite
that they should themselves discredit the state-
ment and have evidence satisfying them that the
other put belief in it.
Procedure taken in consequence of belief in
falsehood would usually result in inferiority in
the deceived person, of character according to
the nature of the procedure, it being of course
usually the jocular falsehoods-hoaxes,-which
bring about imperfection of magnitude or pro-
minence.
In Sect. I. of Class I. I mentioned that in the
destruction, by intimation of disbelief in a state-
ment, of an expectation and chance of success of
what seems an attempt, real or ostensible, at
deceit, or in the destruction-when the statement
is disbelieved but no intimation of disbelief is
made to the producer-of the chance alone, there
remained two elements of risible imperfection
exhibited, belonging to the present class and
216
ILLUSTRATION OF
section, in the shape of errors of judgment; such
errors being (1) the conclusion, real, or ostensible
only, that there was a substantial, i.e., appreciable,
chance of the statement being believed, (such
conclusion being an incidental inferiority) and
(2) the conclusion, (adventitious inferiority) which
must necessarily be real, that there is some chance,
even though infinitesimal, of belief in the state-
ment. These are necessary items of imperfection
in all unsuccessful attempts at deceit; for although
as regards false statements which are not intended
to be believed, there is no real expectation of a
substantial degree that the attempt will be suc-
cessful-no real expectation stronger than everyone
must entertain till positive disbelief is intimated ·
-there is, I hold, always an ostensible expectation
of such substantial degree by reason of the circum-
stance, which I take for granted, that we presume
that under normal circumstances, that is, under
the serious aspect of life, according to which
all detected departure from truth entails real
penalties, no one would risk the penalties of
detected deceit unless he thought he had a sub-
stantial chance of the falsehood being successful.
These same risible imperfections, as was stated
in Sect. I. Class I., are caused where real disbelief
in a statement which there is yet no good reason
for discrediting is intimated. In these cases,
however, there would be no prominence in the
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 217
errors of judgment (committed of course not in
reference to persons in general, but only as regards
the particular individual disbelieving without good
reason), and only the moral issues would call for
consideration.
Besides these necessarily existent items of in-
feriority, real as regards the adventitious, and
real or ostensible only, according to occasion, as
regards the incidental, there would be intrinsic
inferiority of a real character attributed by any
disbeliever in a statement who credited the pre-
senter of it with a degree of real belief in success
greater than he considered a person of average
sense would entertain.
The other mode in which adventitious inferiority
is shown is seen where some commonly received
opinion is pronounced incorrect, upon the authority
of some person of eminence; the inferiority being
shown by those who hold or held the opinion to
those who agree with the pronunciation against
it. The dicta of the satirist indicate instances of
this imperfection, an element of moral inferiority
being in the case of satire presented in conjunc-
tion with the mental imperfection.
I now arrive at instances of intrinsic inferiority
exclusively. First may be mentioned exhibitions
of defective common sense, by which term I
218
ILLUSTRATION OF
·
understand sense of not less than a considerable
degree below the average. A large proportion of
these inferiorities, as shown in Chapter VI., are
exhibitions of defective common sense accom-
panying the presentation of phases of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, and carrying formal
presumptive evidence of conscious invention. The
following are a few instances of this inferiority not
exhibited with phases of circumstantial novelty;
all of them being fictitious and some bearing
every evidence-not being of the formal descrip-
tion-of the defect being ostensible only.
Particular properties we know are adapted to
give pleasure to particular senses. If one fixes
the eye upon a turnip he receives no emotion;
while he may boil down the finest painting with
his leg of mutton without any result that is at all
satisfactory (9). It is true there would be various
opportunities for jokes upon a proceeding of the
latter description. A guest might point out to
his host that the palette should go to the painting,
not the painting to the palate. Another might
say that he had always hitherto been accused of a
want of taste for the old masters, but that no one
could charge him with it now. One might hear
from a third: "This was not an old master. I
always had my doubts about the genuineness of
your Raphael; but there is a modern pungency
about this paint that puts the matter beyond all
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.).
219
question.' Whereon the host might glare at a
fourth, who had sold him the picture and was
himself a painter, and read Nemesis upon his
countenance if he was a scholar, conscious guilt
and retribution if he was no more than a plain
honest man.
Such ignorance of a natural principle as the
foregoing indicates a deficiency of common sense.
The nausea from the swallowing of paint is im-
perfection of Sect. II., Class I.
In Miss Braddon's Sir Jasper's Tenant, already
quoted from elsewhere, Mr. Dobbs says to Dorothy
Tursgood, in discussing the details of a proposed
picnic, "No, Miss Tursgood, not six pair of fowls,
as I see you are thinking of for your contribution;
we will only tax you to the extent of a couple " (10).
He is here speculating on Dorothy's intended
contribution, and exhibits want of common sense
in this ostensible supposition of twelve fowls as
her portion, as although she might think of being
thus munificent, the common probabilities are
that she would contemplate providing neither
much more nor much less than an average con-
tribution for one person.
In A Perilous Secret, by Charles Reade, we have
the words, "That's the advantage he has over me,'
suggested Walter; "she is five feet eight or there-
abouts, so he is just the height of her heart” (11).
Here there is profession of the belief that the
220
ILLUSTRATION OF
correspondence of the total height of the one
person-under five feet-with the altitude of the
heart of the other, would be likely to endear the
two to each other. This physical correspondence
forming an excuse for the imperfection, the latter
possesses circumstantial novelty No. 1. (class 1).
Attaching undue importance to small matters
is a common form of inferiority. Instances are
seen in the two following, primarily due, however,
the first to an idiosyncrasy, and the second to the
bias of self-interest. The first illustration (12) is
given in the incident No. 20, Chapter VI., Part I.;
"Now this old gentleman prided himself on the
neatness of his dispatches. A blot on the paper
darkened his soul." In one of Edgar Poe's tales
a resuscitated mummy is being interrogated on
the state of civilization of the ancient Egyptians,
with the result of showing their superiority in
almost all matters to the moderns, when finally
the inquiry is made, compared with which all
others are evidently regarded as trivial, “Did
your countrymen comprehend the mode of
manufacture of Ponnonner's lozenges ?' (13) We
waited anxiously for the reply, but none came.
The mummy hung his head abashed, and was
silent. Never was victory more complete; never
was defeat borne with so ill a grace. I reached
my hat, bowed stiffly, and withdrew." The air of
dignified contempt shown in the latter process is
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 221
in amusing accord with the consciousness of a
great intellectual victory on the part of the
moderns. This estimate of the relative import-
ance of the lozenges and the general attainments
of the Egyptians, shows a want of common sense
which probably would be exhibited with serious
intent by no one in real life, even allowing for the
bias of self-interest. The mummy, in accepting
the estimate, of course makes the same exhibition
of defective common sense, but without the bias.
The presentation of bad and indifferent wit is
a form of mental inferiority in respect of the
opinion that it is worth producing. Wit which
has for its end some personal object as well as
pleasure to the intellectual sense of persons in
general, can often claim exemption from the
category of bad or indifferent wit, although show-
ing a degree of inventive power too slight to be
worth presentation if it could be conceived solely
with reference to the pleasure it gives to the
intellectual sense of the generality.
Under this Class would come proceedings falling
short of the arbitrary standards of correct pro-
cedure fixed by convention-non-observances of
custom, ceremony, or etiquette. These standards,
of course, vary according to the social body, but
it is the variations from the standards of the
general society of one's country which most
prominently bear the appearance of humour,
UorM
-
222
ILLUSTRATION OF
t
The ordinances of convention founded on natural
principles of propriety, as distinct from its
arbitrary ordinances, such as etiquette or fashion,
we call civilization, refinement, or culture. Here
whole communities may show imperfection. ·
Of course inferiority both in respect of civiliza-
tion and etiquette is not mental incapability, but
ignorance of special knowledge-inferiority of
acquirement. And the term generality, from
whose measure of acquirement the procedure is
judged, has a less extended application, the
degrees of limitation being of all varieties, than
where matters of inferior mental capabilities are
concerned.
Transcending conventional standards of morality
in certain directions-standards approved or ad-
mitted by convention, but inadmissible on strict
moral principles-is in the eyes of convention a
form of intellectual inferiority. The directions in
which this excessive observance of moral principles
has this appearance of humour would seem to be
mainly those where the lower degree of morality
would diminish the welfare of others to but little
or no appreciable extent, and would at the same
time obviate confession of some inferiority, moral
or intellectual, in oneself.
An undergraduate at an examination was told
by the examiner afterwards that a failure to
answer some question was, the latter supposed,
MYU
.
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II).
223
due to nervousness. "No, sir, it was ignorance,"
the other replied (14). To let the examiner credit
him with a knowledge he was without, would,
although even convention might not like to
endorse the proceeding with its formal approval,
yet be recognised as excusable, seeing that tempta-
tion was put in the undergraduate's way-would
be all that was positively expected of him; whence
to make the confession of ignorance has a certain
appearance of intellectual inferiority, as being not
positively necessary.
The point of view from which the strict moralist
would regard this procedure would, I should say,
be as follows. From the standpoint of strict
morality, confession of the truth can under no
circumstances constitute intellectual inferiority,
but even the strict moralist would, probably, from
seeing convention regard as unnecessary, con-
fession of such a truth as this, instinctively refer
this confession to convention's standard of morality
likewise (or if he did not do this, would at least
entertain in idea, from familiarity with conven-
tion's standpoint, an exhibition of intellectual
inferiority). He would thus instinctively (or else in
idea) regard the confession as humorous, although
his reason (or else his judgment of actual, as dis-
tinct from ideal, events) referring the confession
to the higher standpoint of strict morality, recog-
224
ILLUSTRATION OF
nises the confession as involving no intellectual
inferiority.
Superfluous, unnecessary observances in the
general phases of procedure to which courtesy
belongs, indicate mental inferiority. In Anthony
Trollope's Doctor Thorne, the doctor, who had
newly furnished his house for the reception of his
adopted daughter, Mary, jocularly tells the child
that he should never dare to come into the draw-
ing-room without her permission, and not then
till he had taken off his boots (15).
As regards manual arts, useful and ornamental,
these for the most part pertain to some one or
other of the several special walks of life, in which
the generality are not engaged, and inferiority in
which forms the material of Sect. IV. of this Class.
Some few are practised by the generality, and of
these writing is probably the foremost.
Caricatures present æsthetic defects, indicating
also physical imperfection in other respects accord-
ing to the feature or features exaggerated, altered,
or omitted. A head of enormous size implies an
extra expenditure of energy to support it, without
compensation for such expenditure.
Inability to perceive the humour in a risible
situation is, of course, a mental inferiority. We
have an instance (16) in the last words in the fol-
lowing passage, which begins, it will be observed,
by a transfer to the subject of twins of the general
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 225
form of words in which runs the well-known
saying on greatness, "Some persons are born
twins, some achieve them, and others have twins
thrust upon them. It would be an interesting
matter for consideration whether the honours of
twinship might not, to some extent, at any rate,
be accorded to members of a family who, while
not entering the world at the same time, volun-
tarily went out of it together, when it would be
said of them, They were not born twins, but they
have done what they could."
The distinction, such as it is, in twinship, lies
in twin births being intrinsically rare events,
which is in no wise the case with a simultaneous
exit from the world of members of a family, how-
ever rare of occurrence the latter event may be.
There is, however, a superficial appearance of the
two events being, after making exception of their
belonging to opposite periods of life, of precisely
the same description: in fact, the simultaneous
exit is a circumstance of general affinity with the
condition of genuine twinship which forms an
excuse for the supposition that the former pro-
ceeding would be a substantially equivalent condi-
tion to twinship of birth, and consequently makes
this supposition a phase of circumstantial novelty
No. 1. (class I.). To this imperfection is, of
course, added the further one of surrendering life
for the purpose of gaining the very qualified
226
ILLUSTRATION OF
distinction of twinship. In the comment furnish-
ing my illustration,-" They were not born twins,"
ete.-—not only is the imperfection in the would-be
twins unperceived, but even terms of approval are
applied to their act.
Nonsense may be defined as a grammatically
constructed sentence presenting a combination of
ideas which is inconceivable to the mind either by
reason of the sentence in itself or by reason of
circumstances under which it is presented. Of
the former division are such statements as that
the sun and moon are identical, that a particular
object appears to a particular person at a given
time wholly rough and wholly smooth, or that it
appears at that moment wholly white and wholly
black. Of the second division would be the state-
ment to a person who has the speaker in view at
the time, that the latter is touching some article,
when really separate from it. Here the evidence
of the other's eyes makes the statement incon-
ceivable to him. To say that one believes inani-
mate objects have reasoning powers is an incon-
ceivable proposition, for the word inanimate
indicates exclusion of all powers of thought.
Although a nonsensical proposition is on the
whole inconceivable, it will present by suggestion
a conceivable situation-which I should term an
approximate one-in virtue of the ideas combined
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 227
in the sentence being conceivable, the character of
which situation would be determined by the
nature of the ideas combined, while on the
subjective side it would often be variously appre-
hended according to the particular person to
whom it is presented. Thus if a person inside a
house were to say to another that he-the speaker
-was at that moment digging in the garden, he
would present by suggestion the approximate idea
of his digging in the garden at some other time
than that referred to, while he might be appre-
hended as digging rapidly or slowly, and with a
spade of one shape or another, according to the
particular person it was who was addressed.
And when one of the phases combined is risible,
as where a person in a house said he was at that
moment digging in the garden for apples, the
approximate idea suggested would be risible
accordingly.
Simple nonsense I should call the result of
ingenuity of the first species, exercised in the
twofold process of, first, the discovery of conceiv-
able ideas approximating the nonsensical state-
ment, and secondly the verbal representation of
them in an inconceivable relation to each other.
Except when used as a metaphor, under which
circumstances convention gives nonsense a place
in the expression of thought, the presentation of
a statement of this kind would constitute imper-
228
ILLUSTRATION OF
fection in respect of the opinion that it was worth
making, an imperfection which would be more or
less atoned for if the approximate ideas are in
any way of an uncommon description, though I
do not know of any such.
Incorrect grammar is a combination of words
which presents no distinct idea, conceivable or
inconceivable, corresponding to the words in their
integrity, but which usually approximates gram-
matical expression nearly enough to satisfy anyone
as to the meaning of the speaker or writer; those
who themselves are accustomed to use incorrect
grammar in the same direction being ignorant even
of the verbal dubiety existing. All incorrect
grammar would constitute exhibition of inferior
acquirements, while such as was not comprehended
would, as involving expenditure of the speaker's
time without return, also indicate imperfection of
Sect. I., Class I.; producing like imperfection in
the auditor.
What are called bulls, together with other pro-
positions admitting of reductions to the impossible
by more or less complex processes of thought, are,
as inconceivable propositions, forms of nonsense.
From the contradiction of ideas being more or
less recondite, such ideas do not necessarily
appear to everyone, as they are, exclusive of each
other; and on this account the presentation of
complex nonsense would constitute exhibition of
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.).
229
mental inferiority-intrinsic or adventitious only
according to whether the contradiction of ideas is
or is not recondite enough to escape the average
individual-with of course more or less evidence
of probability or otherwise of the statement being
made with knowledge of the contradiction of ideas,
according to circumstances.
In virtue of the excuse for the error, these im-
perfections possess circumstantial novelty No. 1.
(class I.).
We have a bull, in which, however, the contra-
diction of ideas is so near the surface that it
would not be likely to be made seriously by any
one, in the advice of a man to a friend to escape
certain money difficulties by paying his debts with
his principal and living on the interest (17). Since
the word interest means a return by another for
the possession of money which was previously
ours, the possession of the money by us excludes
the reception of interest upon that money. But
this exclusion of the one idea by the other is not
on the surface. While for either one's principal
or one's interest to have a twofold existence-for
one to enjoy either twice over-would be plainly
seen to be contradictory propositions, the fact
that principal and interest, from the meaning of
the latter word, cannot be enjoyed by the same
person at once is not plainly apparent: the ability
to select either form of enjoyment of his money
230
ILLUSTRATION OF
might be confounded by the superficial thinker
with the ability to choose both. It is this ability
or option which forms the excuse for the error.
Another bull is seen in a story of a man who had
been hauling up a rope for some time without
finding the end of it, and exclaimed, "There
seems no end to this rope. I believe someone
must have cut it off" (18).
A rope may be endless in one sense, viz., as
regards a piece of it which was its end at a pre-
vious time, and it is this circumstance of general
affinity with the statement that the rope is end-
less in a complete sense which forms the excuse
for the latter statement.
Like items of simple nonsense, absurdities, i.e.,
propositions conceivable but incredible of realiza-
tion because opposed to all experience and prin-
ciples of reason, are due to ingenuity of the first
species (when not presented in connection with
the "events of an occasion ") and carry positive
evidence of the ingenuity; the statement con-
taining a nominal falsehood if the proposition is
asserted to be a fact, or belief is expressed in its
being reasonably possible of realization. The
falsehood involves a risible phase in the utterer in
the shape of useless expenditure of time (imper-
fection of Sect. I., Class I.) in making a statement
which no one would credit. The search for and
presentation of an absurdity would constitute a
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 231
mental imperfection (Sect. I., Class II.) by reason
of the idea being presumably worthless, as not
The idea,
reasonably possible of realization.
however, may have extraordinariness of character
or a greater or less superficial appearance of
being reasonably possible of realization-or the
two combined-and in proportion to the degree
in which it may show these features would the
imperfection just mentioned be atoned for.
An idea with both these features is seen in the
story of Baron Munchausen's tethering his horse,
one snowy night, to what he took for a post, and
finding in the morning when the snow had
melted that the supposed post was no other than
the church steeple, to which the horse was hang-
ing (¹).
Section II.-Various divergences from con-
ditions familiar to the observer, and various
alterations in the existing state of things, that
is, various innovations. Many divergences from
familiar conditions do not represent actual imper-
fection, but have the appearance of doing so
because of limited experience on the part of the
observer. As regards alterations in the existing
state of things, we likewise instinctively come to
regard the present state of affairs as the most
suitable, whence alterations have an appearance of
risible imperfection. The first steam engine or
bicycle must have had some appearance of the ludi-
232
ILLUSTRATION OF
•
crous (attributed, of course to the constructor) to
the observer, though, perhaps, curiosity would have
been the first feeling experienced. New fashions
in dress, and such an innovation as the first
umbrella, would have a more pronounced appear-
ance of imperfection from the circumstance of
their association with the human body, and the
consequently more especially physical aspect of
the inferiority. To the untravelled individual,
foreign costumes would present imperfection of
this section.
Section III.-Inferiority in special walks of
life to the generality of those engaged in such
directions.
The following lines on Didactics in poetry give
an illustration:-
Parnassus' peaks still catch the sun,
But why, O lyric brother,
Why build a pulpit on the one,
A platform on the other! (21)
Didactics, proper enough elsewhere, are here re-
garded as, when introduced into poetry, placing
the author as a poet in a position of inferiority to
his fellow poets.
Two lines by Pope in reference to a Lord
Mayor's Show give another instance, in the
shape of almost immediate oblivion of a poet's
works :-
'Now night descending, the proud scene is o'er,
But lives in Settle's numbers one day more." (22)
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.). 233
This imperfection is also a phase of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2, group 7, division 2; the
idea which would occur to the mind ordinarily
when the subject of the commemoration of an
event by a recognized poet was before it being a
life of the poem for some substantial period.
Artemus Ward, referring in one of his lectures
to some animals in a picture which had been
brought out for comment as part of the entertain-
ment, said to the audience, "You may wonder
what these are. They are horses. I know it, for
the artist told me so himself. He came to me
one day and said, 'Mr. Ward, I can conceal it
from you no longer. They are horses'" (23).
The inferiority belonging to this Section-the
artistic defect in the total failure to represent the
horses-is of course not a feature of any interest.
The value of the passage lies in the artist's want
of common sense in thinking (as is indicated by
the words "I can conceal it no longer," which
imply that there is temptation for him to keep
the secret) that while he retained his secret he
would, as would the holder of a secret ordinarily,
be in a position of unqualified superiority in
respect of that item of knowledge to those who
were without it, whereas the circumstance that
no one knows the intended species of the animals
but himself is most discreditable to him as a
painter. It is true the artist's work remains the
234
ILLUSTRATION OF
same, whether or not the secret is kept, but the
statement of what the animals are intended for is
an item of a certain value, for the interest of
every picture is to some extent in its representa-
tive aspect-the mental ideas called up by the
work-and not only in its presentative aspect-
an arrangement of form and colour.
This latter imperfection in the artist is a phase
possessing circumstantial novelty No. 1 (class I.),
the excuse for the imperfection being the circum-
stance that secrets ordinarily place the holders in
a position of unqualified superiority to those with-
out the knowledge.
Section IV.-Inferiority attributed in idea, in
virtue of an ideal incident, to the Deity; and in-
feriority, also ideal, ascribed to Nature, regarded
as a personality.
Inferiority attributed in idea to the Deity is
shown in those ideal events which imply in him
capability short of the omnipotence which we
attributed to him. The believer is accustomed to
associate the idea of omnipotence with the idea
of a Deity, while the agnostic, although his mind
rejects the belief in the real existence of a Deity,
entertains the idea of a God, with omnipotence
as his attribute, from seeing it done by the
believer; and thus all persons refer every idea of
a proceeding indicating less than omnipotence in
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.).
235
the Deity of the believer, to that fullest measure
of power.
An instance (24) of this inferiority is seen in the
incident No. 1, Chapter VI., Part III. The
supposition of the loss of an archangel from
heaven is an imputation of power short of
omnipotence in the Deity. In Gibbon's Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 59, we
have another instance of this ideal inferiority.
The enemy of the Church (Frederic II.) "is
accused ... of indulging a profane thought
that if Jehovah had seen the kingdom of Naples
He never would have selected Palestine for the
inheritance of His chosen people" (25). Here there
is a very considerable item of imperfection,
presented in the idea that Jehovah, by His
ignorance of Naples, is not only less than
omniscient, but is without an item of knowledge
which is a widely existent possession among mere
mortals.
We have an instance (26) of inferiority ascribed
to Nature, in the witticism by Douglas Jerrold
quoted elsewhere: "Nature must have had a very
bad pen"-in writing honest man upon some one's
face. The inferiority, I should say, is loss of
dignity in Nature's engaging in the manual
process of writing with a pen. The imperfection,
it is true, would be ascribed to Nature whenever
we use the metaphorical expression of her writing,
236
ILLUSTRATION OF
but since convention ignores the details of
metaphor when that is used in the ordinary way,
and regards only the essential feature-here the
indication of character-the imperfection would
be then ignored.
Section V.-Humour in inanimate objects. This
would be shown (1) in certain real or ideal pro-
ceedings in or in conformity with the actual course
of events, viz., motions or positions which are not
in accordance with the conformation of the ob-
jects, and (2) in certain ideal self-instituted pro-
ceedings taken by these objects endowed by us in
imagination with life and powers of outward
activity. As regards the firstly mentioned
incidents, it seems to me we ascribe a personality
to the objects, and observe humour in them upon
the same principles as those upon which un-
dignified bodily procedure in man is humorous.
Imperfection of the second category, I should say,
forms two divisions. The first is that of spon-
taneous action in general, i.e., powers of thought
and bodily movement, and vocal power, which it
seems to me we should regard as causing a loss
of dignity by these objects on account of spon-
taneous action being not in accordance with their
nature. The proceedings composing the second
division are those identical in character with those
which would be risible in human beings, and
which, as we should regard the objects as having
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS II.).
237
the same purposes and capacities for pleasure and
pain as ourselves, would appear risible in them.
Thus the pot accusing the kettle of blackness (27)
shows mental inferiority in thinking itself
æsthetically superior to the kettle. The foot-
stool, if it declared itself the most important
piece of furniture in the house (28), would like-
wise show mental inferiority. Physically, again,
they might be imagined as suffering loss and pain
like human beings.
It will be observed from the foregoing, taken in
connection with Sect. VII., Class I., that where
the appropriation of an article to another use than
its ordinary one (imperfection of the section just
named) involves the movement of it in a manner not
suited to its conformation, we have two forms of
imperfection, one on the part of man, from his
being interested in the appropriation of things to
their proper uses, and one on the part of the object
itself, in respect of the movement unsuited to its
conformation.
J
CHAPTER X.
DETAILED ILLUSTRATION OF RISIBLE PHASES.
(CLASS III.)
My third class of imperfection — incongruous
juxtaposition-has two divisions: one formed of
incidents where there are presented in association
two of certain attributes, qualities, or characteris-
tics, of animate or inanimate beings, or proceed-
ings of animate beings, which are incongruous
with each other from being considerable diver-
gences in opposite directions from the mean or
central division of a common scale to which the
associated phases belong, this division of in-
congruous incidents being that of incongruity
with diametrical opposition: the other is that of
phases incongruous without presenting diame-
trical opposition, and formed of bathos and
anachronisms.
Whether or not all phases in opposite divisions
of a common scale can be said to present some
incongruity, I do not venture to say; but generally
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.). 239
speaking, the only diametrically opposed phases
which in juxtaposition present any appreciable in-
congruity are either those which are of a physical
nature, or phases one or each of which is itself a
risible imperfection. I have gained but a very
imperfect knowledge of this subject-diametrical
opposition-but, I hope, enough for the purpose
of my analysis.
Under the term bathos I include all sudden
changes from poetical, elevated, and intense, senti-
ment, to an ordinary plane of emotion. The des-
cent, or transition, may be made in two ways; by
means of a risible phase (not, however, a mere
loss without any characteristic feature; such a
phase, of course, would not change the plane of
emotion) or by means of certain serious phases of
life, limited to the ordinary plane of emotion, of
which I will attempt to specify one class-those
which produce incongruity in poetry, and which
are perhaps all that call for any remark. They
are, it seems to me, the greater proportion, per-
haps the whole number, of conventional phases
of modern origin (though often it may be only
particular phases which are incongruous with
particular sentiments) their conventionality limit-
ing them to the ordinary plane of emotion, and
they thus having a particular place in life, unlike
the wholly natural, the unconventional, phases,
240
ILLUSTRATION OF
1
which appropriately find place in any emotional
level.
Such terms as hunger, war, famine, time, re-
present wholly natural ideas, while the correlative
expressions dinner, military offices, famine fund,
and so many minutes past a certain hour, are
conventional. To some extent conventional ex-
pressions may properly find entrance in poetry,
the admissible terms being mainly either those
which are more general in their character, as
the hours, battalions, artillery, or those whose
primary use is mainly confined to the past, as a
corslet or a pasty (a word introduced without in-
congruity in Lord Tennyson's Audley Court) which
fact it would seem has the effect of precluding
the appearance of the ordinary which would
attach to modern names for these objects.
Anachronisms are opposed phases because these
were never found in association in real life. The
incongruity here may be described as not an in-
trinsic but an extrinsic opposition, due to the
course of events, which brings various things into
existence at different times.
I have now to state why incongruities are risible
imperfections. In procedure within the scales
of attributes, qualities, or characteristics, incon-
gruous in opposition; in matters of poetical, grave,
or deep sentiment; and in respect of the period
at which one may represent an incident or object
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.). 241
as actually occurring or existing (this being of
course no other than a question of truth—or at
least substantial accuracy—or misrepresentation);
progress, and preservation of welfare is normally
attained by the association of like things with
like, as regards poetry, etc., and anachronisms,
and in the other procedure, by the association of
phases not opposed to each other. The generality
more or less correctly apprehends the violations of
this law-the incongruous phases of procedure—,
and thus refers the incongruity to the higher
standard of the congruous procedure which it
apprehends.
The inability to perceive an incongruity would
constitute an ordinary mental inferiority (Sect. I.,
Class II.).
I have now a few incidental remarks to make
respecting incongruous juxtaposition, after which
various illustrations of these imperfections will
be given; and I must here state that I have not
succeeded in all cases in apprehending the direc-
tion in which the loss from an incongruity lies.
The person or persons experiencing partial or
total loss of progress, or diminution of wel-
fare, in consequence of an incongruity, would,
when the phases opposed belong to two sen-
tient beings, be these latter, and sometimes
also the observer according to the particular
character of the phases opposed, though perhaps
R
242
ILLUSTRATION OF
in all cases the observer may be said to experience
loss to some extent, though it may be inappre-
ciable. Where the phases opposed belong to
inanimate objects, the loss would, as might be
presumed, be that of the observer. With opposed
physical attributes, as where tall persons associate
with short, stout with lean, robust with weak, the
loss would mainly be on the part of those persons.
Tall and short men would experience the various
physical inconveniences of being on greatly different
levels of altitude, stout and lean persons various
inconveniences which I presume must attend
movements by them of greatly different degrees of
rapidity, and the association of robust and weak
persons would, I should say, cause a loss from
their difference in power rendering them unable
to co-operate to the best advantage for each.
While the observer may be said to incur some
slight loss in the extra energy required to adjust
the focus of the material eye to persons differing
greatly in girth or stature, and his mental focus
in the observation of opposed attributes less
visible, or invisible, to the outward eye. Where
the incongruity is in a production, transient or
permanent, by a single individual, or a joint pro-
duction by more than one person, as bathos in
poetry, or incongruity with diametrical opposition
in any work of art, the loss, I should say, would
be the author's only. Presumably paying no more
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.). 243
than the positive value of the production, the
recipient of the production does not lose welfare
in the direction of over payment for it. But the
author-who may or may not perceive the incon-
gruity in his production-loses; by reason of a
production presenting incongruity being of less
exchangeable value than one, otherwise equally
good, without incongruity.
Where the observer is a loser by an incongruity
there is, it would seem, little if any prominence in
his imperfection, from the circumstance that it is
not one indicating inferior capabilities in him,
and perhaps also because his loss is never great.
And it appears to me that, while recognizing the
force of the incongruity, the observer yet in idea
dissociates himself substantially from risible im-
perfection; i.e., entertains no thought of any
risible imperfection in himself.
With artificial objects presenting incongruity
when brought into association, sometimes the
opposition is in their intrinsic attributes, as in the
juxtaposition of a delicate piece of glass work
with a heap of hard, coarse articles, a ball dress
with a sack, and sometimes in ideas of which the
objects are symbolical or representative, as a
crown and punch bowl, a spelling book and a
volume of Plato or Aristotle.
The following are a few illustrations of incon-
gruous juxtaposition.
244
ILLUSTRATION OF
The first is the association of gravity, or excep-
tional seriousness, and jocularity of subject matter;
an extract from a report of an imaginary concert.
"The concert was concluded by a piece called
'Life in Death and Death in Life,' a symbolical
work, showing how all things intermingle; how
we pass from childhood to maturity and again
into childhood; how the beginning and the end
are one. In witness whereof it was pointed out
after the performance that the music which had
just drawn tears from every eye would have been
equally effective if turned upside down and begun
at the end; while the libretto, which moved the
very soul with its solemn pathos, could be planted,
as it were, tail upwards, without the least injury
to its vitality "(¹).
The phrase "In witness whereof "-being a
stereotyped form of expression in legal docu-
ments, has the appearance of having a prescrip-
tive right to be confined to these, and thus its
employment elsewhere has the appearance of
inferiority from being a violation of conventional
propriety (imperfection of Sect. I., Class II.).
The following two lines from a Christmas card
are at opposite ends of the scale of fluency of
verbal rhythm :-
"Ye compliments of ye seasonne I bring,
And wish you joy in everything "(2).
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.). 245
Over and above the contrast between the remark-
able fluency of the second line and the even more
remarkable defects in the progression of the first,
it seems to me that the second carries with it a
suggestion-a ring as of triumphal achievement
in the poet's having done this much, viz., con-
structed his line-the first-albeit two inadmiss-
ible syllables remain as traces of the struggle, or
at least one. In such case there would be pre-
sented a further incongruity in the juxtaposition
of the author's feeling of triumph with the emo-
tion which would occur to the reader as that
appropriate to the occasion, viz., a sense of
inferiority.
Incongruity would seem to lie in an attempt at
injustice resulting in the reversal of the hoped
for relations between the parties concerned, by
the person making the attempt being deprived
even of property legitimately his own-a proceed-
ing described by the metaphorical phrase, “the
biter bit," where, as I suppose it often does, this
means "the would be biter bit." The mean
division of the scale to which the opposed phases
belong would be the absence or the frustration of
attempt at injustice.
A common form of incongruity is the opposition
between want of dignity, or, as is often the case,
procedure by persons, such as children, and those
246
ILLUSTRATION OF
of low station, whose position is such as to require
little or no sacrifices to be made for its mainten-
ance, and what we call an oppressive sense of
dignity (a phase involved in, though I suppose it
does not wholly constitute,-is only a part of,
pompousness) which would seem to be, strictly
speaking, superfluous concession for the mainten-
ance of one's station. These contrasts present
diametrical opposition in the scale of concessions
made to dignity; the mean of the scale being a
due amount of dignity, and the opposing divisions
being want of it and superfluous concessions to it.
In the scale of dignity itself the normal degree of
perfection is the maximum degree; dignity relat-
ing to broad and general principles, which place
perfection within the power of everyone, and
hence there can be there no divergence from the
normal condition except in one direction-that of
diminution.
The following is an instance of deep emotion in
the form of great lamentation without adequate
cause (preventing any appeal to sympathy, even if
the loss were not, as it is, deserved) found in
association with considerable humour. One of
Mr. George Grossmith's impersonations is that
of a connoisseur in old china, whose occupations
extend to the fabrication of spurious antiquities
in this material. This individual, after a long
.
RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.). 247
and intent inspection of an article he has given a
high price for in the belief that it was a genuine
antiquity, bursts out, in a tone of intensest anguish,
"It's my own make!" (3) The humour in associa-
tion with the emotional phase is the error of judg-
ment made by the connoisseur in taking his own
handiwork for a genuine antiquity; and there is
a further item of humour of especial prominence
(imperfection of Sect. I., Class II.) in his apparent
inability to perceive the incongruity.
In the admixture of comedy with tragedy, on
the stage, which may occasionally be made with
good effect, the opposing characteristics are not
both at the ends of their respective divisions of
the common scale, the comedy being slight and
delicate, and thus having only a minimum breadth
of jocularity.
Most parodies present incongruous juxtaposi-
tion, those which do so consisting in the expression,
in a more or less close approximation to the words
of some poetical train of thought, of ideas incon-
gruous with it either from being confined to the
exclusively ordinary plane of emotion, or from
going beyond this-presenting inferiority in them-
selves. Their justification usually lies in the
existence of some slight imperfection or, it may
be, innovation upon precedent in the original,
which feature the parody makes broadly defective
248 RISIBLE PHASES (CLASS III.).
by exaggeration, or by presentation under different
conditions than those of the original. The work
parodied, not being actually presented, is only
suggested by the parody, and it thus needs
acquaintance with the original to recognise a
second and incongruous train of thought, unless,
that is, elevated passages are interspersed in the
parody itself.
CHAPTER XI.
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
SATIRE, irony, and sarcasm, of which latter I
should say ridicule by jeers and mimicry is a
form, of a less dignified character, I should call
the divisions of a category the distinguishing
feature of which is the observation of a twofold
element in procedure by a person or persons; viz.,
moral inferiority, not passing certain limits,
and risible inferiority, not limited in degree, and
always of some amount of prominence.
I should describe satire as the exposure of
-combined moral and, in one or more directions,
risible imperfections in procedure, by a person or
persons, distinguished by the following feature,
viz., that its real character is more
or less
recondite, and is on this account liable to pass
unperceived by the generality of persons without
special study by them, or, where the real nature
of the case is exceptionally recondite, without an
exposition of the circumstances by someone of
250
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
exceptional insight, as the professed satirist is or
assumes to be.
The moral inferiority lies in such directions as
unwarranted pretensions to a position of moral
or intellectual superiority over others; pretensions
to a position of moral or intellectual equality with
others, unwarranted by reason of the presence of
moral or intellectual inferiority in the claimant;
and expenditure on self, or self indulgence, to an
extent which the satirist thinks should be regarded
as culpable. The risible inferiority necessarily
shown is the false estimate of one's moral or
intellectual status (adventitious inferiority, of
Sect. I. Class I. of risible phases) resulting from the
ignorance either that one is no better than others,
morally or otherwise; that one fails to reach a
position of moral or other equality with others by
reason of the existence of moral or other in-
feriority; or that the expenditure or self indul-
gence noted by the satirist is culpable.
Of risible inferiorities in other directions
imperfections not necessarily existent in the
material for satire-I may mention the meanness
-a want of dignity-of snobbism, of which
Thackeray discovered or professed to discover so
much.
Perhaps one illustration of satire will be enough
-Thackeray's dictum that the conduct of George
the Fourth was destructive of the claim made for
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
251
him, and acquiesced in by him, of his being the first
gentleman in Europe, and even deprived him of
any claim to the name of gentleman (¹). There is
noted here moral inferiority in the unwarranted
pretension to superiority in the qualities consti-
tuting a gentleman, and risible inferiority in the
shape of ignorance that the pretension is un-
warranted.
Irony, in what seems to me may be regarded as
the strict sense of the word, is the attempt at
indication to another, by inference from a process.
of exaggeration, not expressly by words, of one's
sense of the exhibition by the other of imper-
fection in the shape of mental inferiority, or
mental and moral inferiority combined. The
exaggeration is to such an extent as to be obvious
to persons in general, thus forming a phase of
circumstantial novelty No. 2 (see Obvious
Exaggerations, Chapt. VI., Part III.), and is,
according to circumstances, either an exaggerated
representation of the procedure itself, or the
presentation in idea, as probable of realization, of
procedure similar to it but exaggerated in
degree; the exaggeration in this latter category
not necessarily taking the same precise direction
as the procedure noted, but on occasion merely
the same general direction.
Where it is reasonably possible that a
252
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
•
as
particular individual, as distinguished from
persons in general, should regard the representa-
tion as a true one, or the ideal procedure as
probable of realization, there is formal presump-
tive evidence of ingenuity of the third species,
while where the exaggeration is to such an extent
that it is not reasonably possible that he should
So regard it, the evidence of ingenuity is
positive.
The solely risible imperfections noted by irony
do not, as will perhaps have been observed, belong
to this category, relating as it does to acts in
which moral inferiority is shown; but since they
are so rarely met with, I have, to avoid making
a specific distinction in the heading of this
chapter, as also the repetition of general remarks
on irony, made my reference to these incidents
here. We have an instance of this form of irony
if a person, eating with a gravy spoon (exhibition
of inferiority of acquirement in respect of conven-
tional custom), were recommended to use a soup
ladle instead (²).
The combined risible and moral imperfections
forming the usual material for irony are such as
an act or a demand by a person, or an accredition
to himself, which is considered by another
unjust; or a request put forward by the former as
reasonable, and considered by the other to be
unreasonable, and, in consequence, to involve
1
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
253
injustice from its implying a charge of injustice
in the person of whom the request is made, if he
holds, as he then would, that justice does not
demand a compliance with the request.
The risible imperfection noted by irony I should
term an error, or imputed error of opinion, indi-
cating intrinsic mental inferiority.
The ridicule by irony of these combined mental
and moral imperfections may be regarded as
constituting two divisions, the irony of resent-
ment, and good-humoured irony, the latter
being shown when the speaker thinks there
are circumstances such as youth, or want of
education or experience, which excuse the imper-
fection.
The following are among the more ordinary
forms of irony. It may take the shape of an
exaggeration of the particular character of the
unjust proposition, as when, in answer to what
one thought some immoderate request for alms, he
were to say "Perhaps you would like my whole
fortune ?" (3). Another form is the extension of
the characteristic of absence of inferiority
assumed for procedure by the author, and, as the
observer thinks, unwarrantably, to the char-
acteristic of excellence. Irony of this kind would
be shown if a person speaking of some performance
of his, considered by another to be of an inferior
description, and for which the most that he
254 SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
himself would claim would be that it reached the
average level of merit, were to assert that it did
not fall below that level, and were to receive the
reply, "I think you have made an exceptional
exhibition of ability " (4). A third form of irony
is a mere expression of agreement with another,
accompanied by the tone of voice indicative
of irony. Although in this form of irony there is
professedly no exaggeration, I should say that an
admission of the objectionable proposition in any
other way than by silence implies some exaggera-
tion of it. An expressed agreement with the
other's position seems to me to carry some such
implication as that, without doubt, or with but
little doubt, he is right; a stronger position I
think it may be assumed, than that held by him.
Using the word irony, as I have done, in the
limited sense of the attempt by inference from
exaggeration to bring a person to a recognition
of an unsuspected deficiency in him, any ridicule
addressed to a person for deficiency of which he is
aware would be classed as a variety of sarcasm,
viz., taunts, even those jocular inversions
substituting excellences for defects, which we
commonly call irony. It would perhaps be more
correct to describe what I have regarded as irony
in general, by the specific term of "the irony of
attempted enlightenment," thus leaving the other
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
255
specific term, "the irony of taunt," for a pro-
portion of taunts, viz., those which are not
faithful representations of defects-plain jeers—,
but phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2, in the
shape of inversions and improbable or else absurd
explanations (Group No. 7, Division 1, 1st Variety;
and Group 11). This, of course, would leave the
three divisions presented in this chapter un-
affected except by an alteration in name (viz.,
the alteration to satire, the irony of enlighten-
ment, and sarcasm, a variety of which, viz., taunts,
is composed of the ingenious and the non-ingenious
descriptions). But as it would necessitate a
further and heterogeneous class, formed of divi-
sion 2 and a part of division 3, I have used the
word irony in the foregoing exclusive sense of
attempt at enlightenment.
The distinguishing characteristics of sarcasm,
separating it from satire and irony, are, I should
say, the obvious nature to persons in general of
the imperfection noted-differentiating sarcasm
from satire, where the character of the procedure
noted is more or less recondite; and the circum-
stance—this differentiating it from irony—that it
is not the attempt at indication of a defect by the
inference which an obvious exaggeration should
bear.
Conceit, vanity, and such affectations as are
256 SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
obvious to the generality of persons, form probably
the bulk of the material for sarcasm. Of the
several forms which sarcasm takes, the lower are
such taunts and jeers as are not phases of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2; while the higher descrip-
tions are mainly found where circumstantial
novelty is presented in the ridicule.
That description of witty retort which destroys
a position of superiority to or equality with others,
unwarrantably assumed by a person, pertains, by
reason of the moral inferiority in such undue
assumption, to the present category and division,
as well as to the group it may belong to in virtue
of presenting a phase of circumstantial novelty
No. 2.
The material for sarcasm in such incidents is,
we find, in the moral inferiority which unwarranted
assumption of superiority to or equality with
others constitutes, and in the
the intellectual
inferiority-error of judgment-involved in the
ignorance that the assumption is unwarranted.
There is, however, a further feature in these
cases which would be instinctively felt to be
absent from sarcasm in its other forms; this
feature being a risible imperfection of decided
prominence. It consists in the error of judgment
made by the presuming individual in thinking his
right to his assumption would probably remain,
not perhaps accepted, but not denied under condi-
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
257
tions giving material weight to the denial, as is the
case when the denial is accompanied by evidence
of a superiority in its author, as is the appreciable
wit of these retorts. While another feature,
correlative with this, would be our pleasure at
finding the claim thus effectually denied-a
pleasure, of course, of a different kind to that
which we take in the wit of the remark, one
being a moral and the other an intellectual
emotion.
The following incident would come within the
province of sarcasm like the foregoing, if we hold,
as we probably should, that the words of the
subject of the witticism imply an unwarranted
assumption of superiority over
the average
individual. To those, however, who thought
otherwise that no such unwarranted assumption
was implied by the words—the only features would
be an item of risible imperfection, of no great
prominence, which will be specified, and the wit
in the retort.
The joke, it will be observed, is one which is
suggested by a very obvious inference, but not
actually presented, i.e., made, since the words
which convey the joke have no actual connection,
though a very obviously intended one, with the
first speaker's words. In the old Irish Parliament
a member in the course of a speech gave utterance
to the words "I am the guardian of my own
8
258 SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
:
honour," whereon another member started up with
the interruption "I had always understood that
the gentleman who has just been speaking was an
enemy to sinecures " (5). The first speaker's words
are-though only by force of license-a general
expression, bearing the two interpretations of the
guardianship of an actually existent property, and
the care of one that is fictitious-a sinecure. It
bears the latter interpretation by license only
because the word sinecure is not a term ever
generally recognized as applying to a (fictitious)
mental quality. The quibble here is not in the
shape of an expressed, but an understood asser-
tion that the other's guardianship of his honour
is a sinecure--that what he calls his honour has
no substance, but is a meaningless phrase. We
perceive the understood assertion because the
words come as an interruption to the other's
speech immediately after his reference to his
honour, and mean, if they mean anything in con-
nection with that reference, that the speaker's
attitude of enmity to sinecures was inconsistent
with the guardianship he held.
If, as I interpret the first speaker's words, they
constitute a claim to decide, without reference to
any opinions of others, what is honourable conduct
for him and what is not, there is of course pre-
sumption shown in the shape of an unwarranted
assumption of superiority over at least the average
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
259
individual, who makes no such claim for himself,
and also over such persons admittedly superior to
the average individual as do not make the claim
for themselves. If this is not the proper inter-
pretation of the words, the claim made, in which
I assume there is no presumption, would be that
the speaker shall be trusted to do nothing dis-
honourable. Whether a presumptuous claim is
held to be made or not, there is error of the same
kind as in the previous incident, viz., in the
opinion that such claim as is made would be likely
to meet with no denial carrying material weight
in virtue of its being accompanied by wit. But if
we thought a just claim had been made, the
special pleasure in another's discomfiture which
we should feel on an occasion like that of the pre-
vious incident would be absent here.
Besides the above error of judgment there is
another risible imperfection, of no great promi-
nence, by reason of the jester ostensibly having
withdrawn at some period-the intimation of the
circumstance being only made now, and the
inferiority from the loss of esteem being thus only
exhibited now-the credit for ordinary honour
which reason points out is the due of everyone not
proved dishonourable.
There is another version of this joke which
represents the interruption as taking the form
"I must then congratulate the gentleman who
260
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM.
has just been speaking on the sinecure which he
possesses." This form of the joke-a positive
ascription, not mere inference, of possession of a
sinecure-presents a difference from the other in
that the jest is made in words, instead of being
suggested only, by obvious inference.
I should describe a taunt as the calling atten-
tion to a failure in another to make good a claim
which appeared problematical, and therefore un-
just, from the probabilities at the time of the
claim not being in its favour. The language of
Elijah to the prophets of Baal unavailingly invok-
ing their god, in which he urges them to cry
louder, for perhaps the god slept or was taking
a walk (6), although sometimes called irony, and
under any circumstances having certain features in
common with it, would under my definitions be
classed as a taunt; since when Elijah spoke, the
great probability of the presumptuous nature, from
having no foundation, of the claim that they were
favoured by a god Baal, was seen by the prophets
themselves-did 'not remain to be indicated by the
inference carried by irony.
When Elijah speaks it is not yet shown that the
prophets of Baal are favoured to no extent by a
potent god, for, though tardily, he may yet answer
their appeal. But as he does not readily answer,
every probability points to no response ever
coming, and thus, though a tardy answer is yet
SATIRE, IRONY, AND SARCASM. 261
possible, not even a claim to that much would,
in the face of so great probability against its being
substantiated, be now made; that is, there is no
remnant of unsuspected presumption for Elijah
to discover to the prophets when he speaks his
memorable words.
The explanation of the cause of the absence of
a response pertains to the group of phases of
circumstantial novelty No. 2 which have an
invariable immediate unlimited class connec-
tion with the events of the occasion, but which
belong to class 1 of the phases of novelty because,
while not being reasonably possible of represent-
ing reality, they have legitimacy of presentation
by license, viz., by the extravagance of imagina-
tion permitted by the laws of ridicule.
;
CHAPTER XII.
MISCELLANEOUS.
In this last chapter is made, inter alia, such brief
reference as seems called for to that form of wit,
or so-called wit, which is not ingenuity, but con-
sists in acuteness of observation in association
with terseness of expression; and mention of
various sources of extrinsic value in risible phases,
other than value proceeding from circumstantial
novelty, incongruous juxtaposition, or rhythm and
rhyme.
The form of wit referred to, it need scarcely be
said, is that shown in all proverbs, aphorisms, and
maxims, and nothing more need be said of these
than that they sometimes present risible phases,
in a variety of forms, and are sometimes without
these. Such proverbs as contain metaphors, as,
for instance, A rolling stone gathers no moss (¹),
add to the wit of this description, ingenuity of the
first species, in virtue of the invention of the
metaphor.
MISCELLANEOUS.
263
As to the above-mentioned extrinsic sources of
value in risible phases;-the accumulation of
risible phases all bearing upon one subject gener-
ally gives to the incident as a whole a worth con-
siderably beyond the mere aggregate of the value
of each risible phase taken independently.
Another source of value in risible phases would
seem to be discrimination or restraint in the matter
of intentional exaggeration, whereby as close an
appearance of reality is given as is compatible
with marked exaggeration. One of Lamb's letters
to Landor, given in Forster's life of the latter,
presents an instance. "I knew your Welsh annoy-
ancers, the measureless Beethams," he writes; "I
knew a quarter of a mile of them. Seventeen
brothers and sixteen sisters, as they appear to me
in memory" (2). The risible phases here are: first,
exhibition of defective common sense in regarding
a family according to their aggregate measure-
ments: and secondly, the enormous number of
the family, as stated (imperfection of Sect. II.,
Class II.). In the words "a quarter of a mile,
we have one of the lower, if not of the lowest, of
one description of measurements-that used for
determining travelling distances-which modera-
tion gives as near an appearance of reality as is
possible to the large exaggeration employed. (The
assertion that the family measured a quarter of a
mile is, as an exaggeration obvious to anyone, a
وو
264
MISCELLANEOUS.
phase of circumstantial novelty No. 2, the event
of the occasion being simply the mention of the
family.) And again, by his addition to the, in
all probability, exaggerated statement as to the
number of the family, of the words "as they
appear to me in memory," the writer invests a
remarkably exaggerated statement with that
aspect of the natural-of being made with serious
intent-which from the fallibility of the memory
a statement respecting the distant past may have
when it would seem but an intentional exaggera-
tion if the knowledge of the facts were of recent
acquisition.
Magnitude of interests affected is another
source of special value in a risible phase. Illus-
tration No. 22, Chapter V1., Part II., where a
whole field of competitors in a race have been
kept at the utmost stretch of attention, and then
find themselves without any definite prospect of
beginning the race (imperfection of Sect. III.,
Class I.), gives an instance (3) of this.
Lastly is to be mentioned a class of errors, of
which I have already given one or two specimens,
chiefly in Chapter IX., but which call for some
reference here on account of their large number.
This is the class of mistakes which have a special
value, as humour, from their being due to ques-
tions being regarded from au individual standpoint,
this making wholly natural mistakes which would
MISCELLANEOUS.
265
not be so if their authors had only the general
point of view from which to contemplate matters.
These errors, which scarcely need any illustration
here, may, I suppose, be divided into the two
categories of those caused by the bias of self-
interest in general, and those due to a person's
having some special interest or occupation; such
as, to quote here an imperfection of the latter
kind, the view of literature taken by the publisher
who was reported to have said of a deceased author,
whose books he brought out, "Yes, I am right
sorry he has gone. He was an old man, but
there was a good deal of meat left on him " (4) —
a speech which is not confined to the legitimate
contemplation of literature solely in the subordi-
nate aspect with which the publishing interest is
-concerned, but shows no recognition whatever of
literature having any other aspect than this-
refers to an author as if his one use, the one
purpose of his existence, was that of yielding
meat for his publisher.
It will be seen how under such a theory of
risible imperfection as mine, the broader differ-
ences which mark the humour of writers noted for
this quality are in every way accounted for, though
of course it does not need an original theory to
explain some of them. The humour of the
satirist shows the two distinctive features that
266
MISCELLANEOUS.
*t
it consists in imperfection in others, not himself,
and is exhibited in conjunction with the moral
inferiority I have specified in Chapter XI.
The humour presented intentionally by the
dramatic writer (always slight and well short of
the ludicrous, avoiding thereby pronounced incon-
gruity) by the writers of comedy and farce, and
by novelists who deal in the quality, shows the
former of the above-mentioned features, viz., the
imperfection being on the part of others, not the
obvious inventor of it. While those writers who
show humour in the relation of their own reflec-
tions, opinions, and experiences, often to a large
extent exhibit the imperfection in themselves,.
chiefly by way of general mental inferiority, and not
seldom in the form of incongruous juxtaposition.
With the question as to the precise province of
the specific term humour, my theory, it will have
been seen, is not concerned, recognizing the matter
as one of individual preference - a preference
which, it need scarcely be said, with most persons
lies in one or other of two directions only, viz., on
the one hand the refusal of the name of humour to
any risible incident, however ingenious, if it is
wanting in one or more of certain requirements.
such as truth to nature, pathos, and the less.
definable qualities of felicity, propriety of appli-
cation, and tone; and on the other hand, the-
MISCELLANEOUS.
267
acceptance of a substantial measure of ingenuity
as in itself a qualification for the title of humour.
Here, then, ends my theory. An indefinite
amount of further illustration might have been
given, and undoubtedly with advantage in one or
two groups (No. 9 for instance) in Chapter VI., in
which chapter, moreover, it may be held that as re-
gards two of the lesser groups (Nos. 6 and 10) I
have not established the application to them of
my theory of circumstantial novelty (2nd descrip-
tion) in a wholly satisfactory manner. I am fain
to believe, however, that the fundamental and
general features of the whole theory are satisfac-
tory, and that, except in the chapter just mentioned,
I can scarcely be charged with any very substantial
shortcomings. While with regard to Chapter VI.,
I cannot but think that the treatment of even
a proportion only of the groups with complete-
ness, and congruity with my theory of ingenuity-
which, if I judge my work rightly, may at least
be claimed-may be enough for a convincing
theory.
THE END.
INDEX.
Absurdities:
Due to ingenuity of 1st species when not presented in con-
nection with the events of an occasion: 51-2, 230.
When so presented, due to ingenuity of 3rd species: 62, 1..
8; 81, 1. 8; and 159-61.
"6
The election to seek and present an absurdity" (whether
connected with the event of an occasion or not) constitutes
mental inferiority, of degree short of defective common
sense: 62, 1. 13-26; 230, 1. 28, to 231, 1. 3.
Adventitious inferiorities:
Errors of judgment:
Occasional references: 21; 46,
1. 7-13; 60, 1. 18, to 61, 1. 8.
1st Division: data for correct conclusion accessible: 208-9;
212, 1. 14, to 214, 1. 15.
2nd Division: such data not accessible: 209, 1, 12, to 217,
1. 14.
Errors of opinion: 217.
Antitheses (Phases of Circumstan-
tial Novelty No. 2):
と
​See Identities and Antitheses.
Apparent attempts at deceit :
In general: 28-31; 182, 1. 15,
to 184, 1. 8; 215, 1. 19, to
216, 1. 24.
Conditions excluding a false statement from the category:
29.
Involve incidental inferiority and adventitious inferiority in
the authors: 183, 1. 18, to 184, 1. 8; 215, 1. 19, to 217, 1. 5.
Made in connection with "events of occasions" (then form..
ing phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2): See Group
No. 7, Division 1, Chap. VI., Pt. II.
270
INDEX.
Category of jokes made by a
certain inversion of usual pro-
cesses of jocularity: (Phases of
Circumstantial Novelty No. 2) :
Chap. VI., Pt. II.; and (general
references) Chap. V.
Contains two classes, viz., inverted quibbles and certain
incidents of group No. 7, 1st Division: 143.
Distinguishing characteristics are event of the occasion
(provided always by ingenuity of 1st species) being more
or less difficult of provision; and phase of novelty (which
is not expressed in words) being easily perceptible: 143.
"Generic" imperfections: 150.
Circumstantial Novelty No. 1:
Circumstantial Novelty by rea-
son of excuse for error.
Explained and specifically illus-
trated; Chaps. V. and VII.
Attaches on occasion-to mental inferiorities: 37-8.
Forms two classes: 162.
Excuse for the imperfections in class I. is of two descrip-
tions, according to two senses in which the word is used;
viz. (1), excuse in strict sense; (2), a circumstance in the
nature of an excuse: 162, 1. 18, to 163, 1. 21.
Circumstantial Novelty No. 2:
Circumstantial Novelty by rea-
son of remoteness from ordinary
Explained and specifically illus-
trated; Chaps. V. and VI,
•
mental range.
Attaches cn occasion to phases in general, risible and non-
risible: 38, 1. 3-10.
Phases form two classes, respectively with and without
legitimacy of presentation: 39-40.
Class I. divided into phases having special connection, with
events of occasion: (41, 1. 16, to 43, 1. 7), and those
having a general connection therewith: 43, 1. 8-10.
Class II. contains phases of general connection only: 43,
1. 11-12.
Where one of these phases presented, incident shows risible
phase (termed "generic") in one or more directions: 46,
1. 7-13; 59-62.
Phases of special connection are phases definitely presented,
wholly or in part, by the events of the occasion: (41,
4
INDEX.
271
1. 16-21); and discovery of such phases constitutes sub-
species of 3rd species of ingenuity: 8, 36.
These phases definitely presented are, as regards some
groups, contained wholly or in part in the events of the
occasion; as regards other groups, not contained therein :
41, 1. 16, to 42, l. 14.
"Events of the occasion" are provided sometimes in the
ordinary course of things; at other times by ingenuity of
1st species: 48, 1. 26, to 49, 1. 2.
"Data "
or material," sometimes existing, for events of the
occasion: 65-6; 101.2; 143.
Incidental remarks: 43-8.
Conceit, pride, vanity: 33-4.
"Concomitant and incidental "
event of occasion. (An integral
part of primary event, as re-
gards connection and remote-
ness of phase of novelty):
Gives (provided it is noticed) an appreciable value to phase
of novelty: 43-4.
Instances (Chap. VI., Pt. I.)
**
*
*
Of its being of less immediate presentation than the
primary event: Nos. 11 and 12.
Of its being not an actual occurrence, but an intention;
or a more or less reasonable presumption: No. 14.
Of its being not necessarily expressed in words when joke
made: No. 11.
Of its being not expressed in words before joke made:
Nos. 14 and 15.
"Data, or material" (Occasional
antecedent conditions)
events of occasion:
for
With the majority of puns an indispensable antecedent; as
giving to a twofold rendering merely, a twofold signifi.
cation: 65, 1. 15, to 66.
May precede event, or events, of occasion in group No. 4,
but not indispensable here: 101-2.
Are provided (except in Group No. 8) by ingenuity of 1st
272
INDEX.
species, or in the ordinary course of things, according to
circumstances: 66, 1. 26-8; 102.
Dishonourable procedure:
Is a non-risible phase in exhibitor as being an injustice to
others: (26-34); and risible in him as involving lack of
moral dignity: 27, 1. 3-7; 198, 1. 17-23.
When shown in petty matters involves additional risible
phase in exhibitor in shape of lack of intellectual dignity:
28, 1. 17-22; 198, 1. 24, to 204, 1. 2.
Evidence of Ingenuity:
Is of various kinds :-Positive;
Variable and Indefinite; and
Formal presumptive: 52-7.
Positive evidence: 52, 1. 17, to 53, 1. 6; 55; 56, 1. 24, to 57,
1. 4.
Variable and indefinite evidence: mainly concerns ingenuity
of 2nd species: (53, 1. 22, to 54, 1. 2), and the provision of
"events of the occasion:" 53, 1. 10-21. A few phases of
circumstantial novelty No. 2 are accompanied by this
evidence: 54, 1. 7-13; 137.
Formal presumptive evidence confined to various phases of
circumstantial novelty No. 2 (52, 1. 11-17), and to mental
inferiority (ostensible deficiency of common sense) often
accompanying presentation of same: 56, 1. 18-23.
Where ingenuity is avowed by presenter of phase of circum-
stantial novelty, avowal constitutes positive evidence,
superseding formal presumptive. While, necessarily,
above-mentioned mental inferiority is absent: 56, 1. 23, to
57, 1. 3.
Where phase of circumstantial novelty not reasonably
possible of realization, evidence of ingenuity is positive:
55, 1.9-12.
Exaggerations (obvious to per-
sons in general) of excellences,
imperfections, or attendant con-
ditions of imperfections. (Pha-
ses of Circumstantial Novelty
No. 2).
Chap. VI. Pt. III., and (general
references) Chap. V.
INDEX.
273
Phases of Exceptional imme-
diate connection with events
of the occasion (Phases of Cir-
cumstantial Novelty No. 2) :
Falsehoods (Moral inferiorities,
real or nominal) :
Chap. VI., Pt. II., and (general
references) Chap. V.
Chap. IV. et. seq.
Conditions excluding falsehoods from category of attempts
at deceit : 29.
Obstruction of legitimate progress, or other risible imperfec-
tion, caused in recipient of, or believer in, a falsehood: 29,
1. 18, to 30, 1. 15; 186, 1. 28, to 187, 1. 9.
Professed but not real disbelief in authenticity of news
causes in apparently discredited person exhibition of
obstruction of legitimate progress of a particular descrip-
tion: 188, 1. 27, to 189, 1. 15.
Such imperfection is ostensible merely, if profession of
disbelief is obviously unreal: 189, 1. 3-10.
Where there was no reasonable chance of credit being given,
indicate intellectual, i.e., risible, inferiority as well as
moral: 30-1; 154, 1. 3-12.
"Generic" risible phases in
incidents presenting phases of
circumstantial novelty No. 2:
59-62.
Where discovery of phase of novelty constitutes wit,
generic risible phase is error of judgment: 60, 1. 18, to
61, 1. 8.
Of incidents presenting phases of novelty opposed to common
sense (viz., most phases of special connection, and all
phases of general connection) the 1st category shows
generic risible phase in shape of ostensible mental
inferiority (Sect. I., Class II.), or useless expenditure of
time (Sect. I., Class I.), according to whether phase of
novelty is reasonably possible of realization or not: 62.
2nd category of such incidents shows one generic risible
phase (real mental inferiority of degree short of defective
common sense) common to all incidents: 62.
T
274
INDEX.
For generic risible phases in separate groups and any
divisions thereof, see the several illustrations of these.
Humour (Intentional):
Instance of "dry" humour given and analysed : 166-70.
Identities and Antitheses:
(Phases of Circumstantial
Novelty No. 2) :
(Chap. VI., Pt. I.; and
(general references) Chap. V.
For phase of novelty to be worth notice, events of the
occasion must be of an occasional or transitory character:
97, 1. 21, to 98, 1. 19.
May be left unindicated when easy of perception: 100,
1. 19-23.
Specialities marking certain incidents of the group: 100,
1. 23, to 102, 1. 11.
Idioms treated from the risible
point of view: (Phases of
Circumstantial Novelty No. 2):
See Metaphors and Idioms.
Incidental inferiorities: 21; 183, 1. 27-8; 215, 1. 20, to 217, 1. 5.
Incongruous juxtaposition :
(Composes Class III. of Im.
perfection).
Chap. X.
Ingenuity in general: Forms three species.
Description of ideas due to ingenuity of 1st species: 8; 48; 50-2.
Do. as regards ingenuity of 2nd species: 8; 35-6.
Ingenuity of 3rd species consists in discovery (with or
without expression-express notice-according to circum-
stances) of phases of circumstantial novelty No. 2: 8; 36.
Discovery (with or without expression, according to circum-
stances) of phases definitely presented by events of the
occasion, constitutes sub-species of species No. 3: 8; 36.
Suggested reservation of word wit for this sub-species: 36;
49-50.
Evidence of: See Evidence.
Phases of Invariable immediate
class connection with events of
the occasion: (Phases of Circum-
stantial Novelty No.
2):
Chap. VI., Pt. II.; and (general
references) Chap V.
INDEX.
275
Ist Division: 121-37.
1st Variety: 122-30. A proportion of these, viz., improbable
explanations of one's own conduct, do not carry formal
presumptive evidence of wit. Variable and indefinite
evidence of wit presented or not according to circum-
stances: 126, 1. 7-16.
Jokes by a certain inversion of usual process illustrated in
special category with inverted quibbles: 143-50.
2nd Variety: 130-7.
2nd Division ("Humour by surprise"): 137-43.
Phases of Invariable immediate
unlimited class connection;
legitimate of presentation
through the license of ridicule:
(Phases of Circumstantial
Novelty No. 2):
Ditto; without legitimacy of
presentation :
Irony: Term used as implying
attempt at enlightenment, by
inference from obvious ex-
aggeration. (Presents phases
of circumstantial novelty No.
2; and also—with unimportant
exception, see p. 252-belongs
to special category in respect
of moral inferiority noted.)
Laughter: 15, 16.
Chap. VI., Pt. III. (class I.)
and (general references) Chap.
V.
Chap. VI., Pt. III. (class
II.); and (general references)
Chap. V.
See Satire, Irony,
Sarcasm.
and
Metaphors. Due to ingenuity of 1st species: 8; 48.
Metaphors and Idioms treated
from the risible point of view:
(Phases
of
Novelty No. 2):
Circumstantial
Chap. VI., Pt. I.; and (general
references) Chap. V.
Remarks on the legitimate use of metaphors and idioms: 82,
1. 24, to 89, 1. 16.
The two grades of jokes on metaphors particularized : 88-9.
276
INDEX.
Normal conditions of use of a metaphor and of consideration
thereof by recipient: 83, 1. 23-7.
When extra-ordinary circumstances accompany use of
metaphor, some feature of dissimilarity presents (if
noticed) of its own accord (thereby making attention to it
more or less appropriate) intrinsic or extrinsic exceptional
aspect: 84, 1. 2-15; 91, 1. 23, to 92, 1. 16.
When no extra-ordinary circumstances present, production
of exceptional aspect (special search being required for
this) is only appropriate when a substantial object is
attained thereby: 86, 1. 5-9; 88, 1. 27, to 89, 1. 5; 91, 1. 7-23.
Discussion exclusively of risible treatment of metaphors:
89-95.
Specific statement of conditions giving propriety of produc-
tion to a joke: 91, 1. 1, to 92, 1. 16.
Extra-ordinary circumstances accompanying use of metaphor
constitute "concomitant and incidental" event of the
occasion: 92.
Discussion exclusively of risible treatment of Idioms: 95-6.
Nonsense, i.e., an inconceivable A mental inferiority: Chap. IX.
proposition;
Although an inconceivable proposition, presents by suggestion
an approximate conceivable idea: 226-7.
Simple nonsense, due to ingenuity of 1st species: 52.
Complex nonsense (due to ingenuity of 2nd species when
wittingly produced) possesses in its commoner form, viz.,
that of Bulls, circumstantial novelty No.1: 229.
Phases partly contained in
events of occasion: (Phases of
Circumstantial Novelty No.2):
Perfection:
Chap. VI., Pt. I.; and (general
references) Chap. V.
Sense in which this word, and consequently the word imper-
fection, is used: 12 to 14, 1. 6.
Puns: (Phases of Circum-
stantial Novelty No. 2):
Chap. VI., Pt. I.; and (general
references) Chap. V.
Form two classes; (1) search for second signification not
imperative, (2) search obligatory: 67.
INDEX.
277
Whole substantial value consists in provision of event of
occasion, with, at times, "data" for same; phase of
novelty needing no appreciable wit for its discovery: 64,
66, 1. 26-8.
Generic imperfection peculiar to group: 72.
Riddles: (Mostly Phases of
Circumstantial
Novelty No.
2): See Puns (2nd class).
Risible phases: Three general descriptions of these: 11, 12.
Classified: Chapter III.
Specifically illustrated: Chaps. VIII., IX., and X.
Possess intrinsic novelty, and also on occasion extrinsic or
circumstantial novelty (Nos. 1 or 2): 16, 17.
Receive an adventitious value when presented in metre or
rhythmical form: 17.
Serious moral issues often modify or determine effect of
observation of these phases: 14; 17; 23-4; 180; 181; 186.
"Generic" risible phases accompanying phases of circum-
stantial novelty No. 2: See "Generic."
Sarcasm (Occasionally
pre-
sents phases of Circumstantial
Novelty No. 2, and also belongs
to special category in respect of
moral inferiority noted).
Satire, Irony, and Sarcasm :
(Modes of ridicule of combined
risible and moral inferiorities):
See Satire, Irony, and Sarcasm.
Chap. XI.
Satire: (Presents no phases of circumstantial novelty): 249-51.
Irony: Used in sense of attempted enlightenment, by infer-
ence from obvious exaggeration of error. (Presents in
each case phase of circumstantial novelty No. 2 belonging
to group No. 9, Chap. VI., Pt. III.): 251-5. -
Sarcasm: (Presents phase of circumstantial novelty or not
according to occasion): 255-61.
Similes beyond the limits of
substantially rational compari-
son: (Phases of Circumstantial
Novelty No. 2).
Chap. VI., Pt. III.
3
· 278
INDEX.
Similes within the limits of sub-
stantially rational comparison :
(Due to ingenuity of 1st
species): 8; 48.
Standards to which intrinsic
inferiorities are referable:
Synopsis of Theory: 7-9.
Verbal quibbles: (Phases of
Circumstantial Novelty No. 2):
1st Class
Wit:
Illustrated, 75-81.
Chaps. III., IX., and X.
Chap. VI., Pts. I. and II.; and
(general references) Chap. V.
Generic imperfections attending these: 73-4.
Event of occasion provided sometimes in the ordinary course
of things, sometimes by ingenuity of 1st species: 74.
2nd Class (Inverted quibbles), 72-3. Illustrated in special
category with other jokes by inversion: 143-50.
Term employed in book to designate sub-species of species 3
of Ingenuity: See Ingenuity.
Senses in which the word is ordinarily used;
As above: See Ingenuity.
Mother wit, etc.: 48; 262.
Ingenuity in general of various kinds: Chaps. V. and VI.
Bad and indifferent wit: 221.
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