as
a much better effect in curing the vices and imperfections of men, than
the most illustrious examples of rigid virtue, whose duties are so
sublimed that they rather intimidate the greater part of mankind from
the trial, than allure them to walk in their steps. The following
definition of comedy given by Aristotle and adopted by Horace,
Quintilian, and Boileau, corresponds with these observations: "Comedy,"
says the Stagyrite, "is an imitation of the worst of men; when I say
worst, I don't mean in all sorts of vices, but only in the ridiculous,
which are properly deformities without pain, and which never contribute
to the destruction of the subject in which they exist."

It has been remarked that the most severe satirists have been men of
exemplary goodness of heart. The giant satirist Juvenal, was a
conspicuous illustration of this truth. While his superior intelligence
and sagacity unfolded to him in their full size the vices and follies of
his fellow-creatures, his superior philanthropy heightened his
indignation at them. The same may perhaps be said of the dramatic
satirists, or writers of comedy in general. We could adduce many
instances to corroborate this assertion. That very man who stands
unrivalled at the head of comic poetry, stands not less high in the
estimation of all who know him, for generosity and benevolence. If those
who have traversed the life of the author of the School for Scandal with
the greatest ill will to the man, were put to the question which they
thought, his good-nature or his wit were the greater, they would
probably decide in favour of the former.

The most unamiable form in which comedy has ever appeared, was that it
assumed at its first rise in Greece. The character of the Athenians was
peculiarly favourable to it. The abbe Brumoy who has discussed the
subject with vast labour and talent says, "generally speaking, the
Athenians were vain, hypocritical, captious, interested, slanderous, and
great lovers of novelty." A French author of considerable note, making
use of that people as an object of comparison, says, "_Un peuple aussi
malin et aussi railleur que celui d'Athenes._" They were fond of liberty
to distraction, idolaters of their country, selfish, and vain, and to an
absurd excess scornful of every thing that was not their own. Their
tragic poets laid the unction of flattery in unsparing measure upon this
foible of theirs, representing kings abased as a contrast to their
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