cherry coloured cat with rose-coloured feet.

Observation is necessary for all criticism, especially of that kind
often found in humour. As an instance of humour being unappreciated for
lack of it, I may mention that Beattie considers the well known passage
of Gray to be parodied poetically, but not humorously, in the following
lines upon a country curate--

"Bread was his only food; his drink the brook;
So small a salary did his rector send,
He left his laundress all he had--a book,
He found in death, 'twas all he wished--a friend."

Most people would think that this was intended to be humorous. It
struck me so--the "book" was evidently his washing book--and on turning
to the original poem I found that the other stanzas were not at all of a
serious complexion. The assistance given by imagination to humour is
clearly seen, when after some good saying laughter recurs several times,
as new aspects of the situation suggested present themselves.

Circumstances of time and country greatly modify our modes of thought,
and a vast amount of humour has thus become obscure, not only for want
of information, but because things are not viewed in the same light.
Beattie observes that Shakespeare's humour will never be adequately
relished in France nor Moliere's in England.[17]

The inquiry in the present chapter is not as to what creates the
ludicrous, but as to what tends to vivify or obscure it. We shall not
here attempt any surmises as to its essential nature, although we trace
the conditions necessary to its due appreciation. A great number of
things pass unnoticed every day both in circumstances and conversation,
in which the ludicrous might be detected by a keen observer. The
following is not a bad instance of an absurd statement being
unconsciously made--

"One day when walking in the Black Country the Bishop of Lichfield
saw a number of miners seated on the ground, and went to speak to
them. On asking them what they were doing, he was told they had
been 'loyin.' The Bishop, much dismayed, asked for an explanation.
'Why, you see,' said one of the men, 'one of us fun' a kettle, and
we have been trying who can tell the biggest lie to ha' it.' His
lordship, being greatly shocked, began to lecture them and to tell
them that lying was a great offence, and that he had always felt
this so strongly that he had never told a lie in the whole course
of his life. He had sca