SECTION IV. Illuftrations of the Doctrine flated in the preceding Section. A I. Of Wit. CCORDING to Locke, Wit confifts" in the "affemblage of ideas; and putting those toge"ther with quickness and variety, wherein can be "found any resemblance or congruity *." I would add to this definition, (rather by way of explanation than amendment,) that Wit implies a power of calling up at pleasure the ideas which it combines: and I am inclined to believe, that the entertainment which it gives to the hearer, is founded, in a confiderable degree, on his surprise, at the command which the man of wit has acquired over a part of the conftitution, which is fo little fubject to the will. That the effect of wit depends partly, at least, on the circumstance now mentioned, appears evidently from this, that we are more pleased with a bon mot, which occurs in conversation, than with one in print; and that we never fail to receive disgust from wit, when we suspect it to be premeditated. The pleasure, too, we receive from wit, is heightened, when the original idea is started by one person, and the related idea by another. Dr. Campbell has remarked, that "a witty repartee is infinitely more pleafing, than a witty attack; and that an allufion will appear ex ઃઃ * Effay on Human Understanding, book ii. chap. 11. "cellent "cellent when thrown out extempore in conversa"tion, which would be deemed execrable in print." In all these cafes, the wit confidered abfolutely is the fame. The relations which are difcovered between the compared ideas are equally new: and yet, as foon as we fufpect that the wit was premeditated, the pleasure we receive from it is infinitely diminished. Inftances indeed may be mentioned, in which we are pleased with contemplating an unexpected relation between ideas, without any reference to the habits of affociation in the mind of the person who discovered it. A bon mot produced at the game of cross-purpofes, would not fail to create amufement; but in fuch cafes, our pleasure seems chiefly to arise from the surprise we feel at fo extraordinary a coincidence between a question and an answer coming from perfons who had no direct communication with each other. Of the effect added to wit by the promptitude with which its combinations are formed, Fuller appears to have had a very juft idea, from what he has recorded of the focial hours of our two great English Dramatifts. "Johnson's parts were not fo ready "to run of themselves, as able to answer the fpur; "so that it may be truly faid of him, that he had "an elaborate wit, wrought out by his own industry. -Many were the wit-combats between him and "Shakespeare, which two I behold like a Spanish 66 great galleon, and an English man of war. John"fon (like the former) was built far higher in learn"ing; folid, but flow in his performances. Shake"fpeare, with the English man of war, leffer in bulk, "but "but lighter in failing, could turn with all tides, tack "about and take advantage of all winds, by the quick"nefs of his wit and invention*.” I before, obferved, that the pleasure we receive from wit is increased, when the two ideas between which the relation is difcovered, are fuggested by different perfons. In the cafe of a bon mot occurring in converfation, the reafon of this is abundantly obvious; because, when the related ideas are fuggefted by different perfons, we have a proof that the wit was not premeditated. But even in a written compofition, we are much more delighted when the fubject was furnished to the author by another perfon, than when he chufes the topic on which he is to dif play his wit. How much would the pleasure we receive from the Key to the Lock be diminished, if we fufpected that the author had the key in view when he wrote that poem; and that he introduced fome expreffions, in order to furnish a subject for the wit of the commentator? How totally would it deftroy the pleasure we receive from a parody on a poem, if we fufpected that both were productions of the fame author? The truth feems to be, that when both the related ideas are fuggefted by the fame perfon, we have not a very fatisfactory proof of any thing uncommon in the intellectual habits of the author. We may fufpect that both ideas occurred to him at the fame time; and we know that in the dulleft and moft phlegmatic minds, fuch extraordinary associations will fometimes take place. But when the fubject of the Hiftory of the Worthies of England. London, 1662. wit is furnished by one perfon, and the wit fuggefted by another, we have a proof, not only that the author's mind abounds with fuch fingular affociations, but that he has his wit perfectly at command. As an additional confirmation of thefe obfervations, we may remark, that the more an author is limited by his fubject, the more we are pleafed with his wit. And, therefore, the effect of wit does not arife folely from the unexpected relations which it presents to the mind, but arifes, in part, from the furprise it excites at those intellectual habits which give it birth. It is evident, that the more the author is circumfcribed in the choice of his materials, the greater must be the command which he has acquired over those affociating principles on which wit depends, and of confequence, according to the foregoing doctrine, the greater must be the furprise and the pleasure which his wit produces. In Addison's celebrated verses to Sir Godfrey Kneller on his picture of George the First, in which he compares the painter to Phidias, and the fubjects of his pencil to the Grecian Deities, the range of the Poet's wit was neceffarily confined within very narrow bounds; and what principally delights us in that performance is, the furprifing eafe and felicity with which he runs the parallel between the English history and the Greek mythology. Of all the allufions which the following paffage contains, there is not one, taken fingly, of very extraordinary merit; and yet the effect of the whole is uncommonly great, from the fingular power of combination, which fo long and fo difficult an exertion discovers. "Wife Phidias thus, his fkill to prove, "Great Pan, who wont to chase the fair, "And mighty Mars for war renown'd, "Her twisted threads; the web fhe ftrung, "Thetis, the troubled ocean's queen, "Match'd with a mortal next was feen, "Reclining on a funeral urn, "Her fhort-liv'd darling fon to mourn; "In impious league their King defy'd." According to the view which I have given of the nature of Wit, the pleasure we derive from that affemblage of ideas which it prefents, is greatly heightened and enlivened by our furprise at the command difplayed over a part of the conftitution, which, in our own cafe, we find to be fo little subject to the will. We confider Wit as a fort of feat or trick of intellectual dexterity, analogous, in fome refpects, to the extraordinary performances of jugglers and rope-dancers; and, in both cafes, the pleasure we re. |