their sea legs. Wycherley is said to have been present at some of the
engagements with the Dutch.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Of course this will scarcely apply in those cases in which, by
abstraction, we overlook the creative action of the mind, and regard its
humorous productions as ludicrous. Nor does it hold good where from long
exercise of ingenuity a habit has been formed and amusing fancies spring
up, as it were naturally, and so involuntarily that, for the moment, we
see them only as ludicrous. This view changes almost instantaneously,
and beneath it we often find the best humour. It may be said that such
cases should be placed entirely under the head of humour, but can we
maintain that a man is unaware when he is humorous? The most telling
effects are produced by the ludicrous, and where the creative action of
the mind is scarcely discernible. Efforts to be humorous are seldom
crowned with success; we require something that appears to be real or
original, either as a close rendering of actual occurrences, or a
spontaneous efflorescence of genius. Among the latter class we may
reckon some of our most exquisite and permanent sayings.

[2] A story is told of a Mr. Crispe, a merchant of London, who although
deaf, when Sir Alexander Cary made a speech before his execution,
followed the motion of his lips so as to be able to relate it to his
friends.

[3] Mrs. Barbauld had such a perpetual smile that one of her friends
said it made her jaws ache to look at her.

[4] St. Paul, who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, gives a
different account in Rom. iv. 19. See also Heb. xi. 11.

[5] Soame Jenyns strangely imagined that a portion of the happiness of
Seraphim and of just men made perfect would be derived from an exquisite
perception of the ludicrous; while Addison mentions that a learned monk
laid it down as a doctrine that laughter was the effect of original sin,
and that Adam could not laugh before the fall. Some of the early
Christians felt so strongly the incompatibility of strong human emotions
with the divine nature that they expunged the words "Jesus wept."

[6] Perhaps Solomon was amused by them, for in the catalogue of the
valuable things brought in his ships are apes and peacocks.

[7] I cannot see in Homer any of that philosophic satire on the
condition of mortals, which some have found in those passages where men
are represented