rds, before the
amusement ceases. One principal reason why the mention of a drunken man,
a tailor, or a lover, inclines us to mirth, is that they are associated
in our minds with absurd actions. Laughter is generally greatest when we
are intimately acquainted with the person against whom it is directed.
We have often noticed the absurd effect produced in literature when
words are used which, although suitable to the subject literally, are
remote from it in association. The extreme subtlety of these feelings
render it impossible sometimes to give any explanation of the ideas upon
which a humorous saying is founded, and may be noticed in many words,
the bearings of which we can feel, but not specify. A vast number of
thoughts and emotions are always passing through the mind, many of them
being so fine that we cannot detect them. The results of some of them
can be traced as we have before observed in the proficiency which is
acquired by practice but can never be imparted by mere verbal
instruction.

If things compared together are given too slight a connection, the
associations will not be transferred from one to the other, and the wit
fails, as in Cowley's extravagant fancy work on the basis of his
mistress' eyes, being like burning-glasses. The objects must also be
far enough apart for contrast--the farther the better, provided the
distance be not so great as to change humour into the ludicrous.
Referring to the desirability of a good literal translation of Homer,
Beattie makes the following amusing comparisons.

"Something of this kind the world had reason to expect from Madame
Dacier, but was disappointed. Homer, as dressed out by that lady,
has more of the Frenchman in his appearance than of the old
Grecian. His beard is close shaved, his hair powdered, and there is
even a little _rouge_ on his cheek. To speak more intelligibly, his
simple and nervous diction is often wire-drawn into a flashy and
feeble paraphrase, and his imagery as well as humour, sometimes
annihilated by abbreviation. Nay, to make him the more modish, the
good lady is at pains to patch up his style with unnecessary
phrases and flourishes in the French taste, which have just such an
effect in a translation of Homer, as a bag-wig, and snuff-box would
have in a picture of Achilles."

In parody a slight likeness in form and expression brings together ideas
with very different associations.