occasion for the quibble
being given by some loose or perhaps literal meaning of the words. Thus,
"Have you seen Patti?" _A._ "Yes." _Q._ "What in?" _A._ "A brougham."

Indelicacy or irreverence is unpleasant in itself, and yet when
complication is added to it few of us can avoid laughing, and I am
afraid that some considerably enjoy objectionable allusions. To tell a
man to go to h---, or that he deserves to go there, is merely coarse and
profane abuse, but when a labourer is found by an irritable country
gentleman piling up a heap of stones in front of his house, and being
rated for causing such an obstruction, asks where else he is to take
them, and is told "to h--- if you like," we are amused at the
answer--"Indeed, then, if I was to take them to heaven, they'd be more
out of your way." Thus, also, to call a man an ass would not win a smile
from most of us, but we relax a little when the writers in a high church
periodical, addicted to attacking Mr. Spurgeon, upon being accused of
being actuated by envy, retort that they know the commandment--"Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbour's ass."

If we examine carefully the circumstances which awaken the ludicrous, we
shall probably come to conclude that they often contain something which
puzzles our understanding. An act which seems ridiculous would not
appear so if we could entirely account for it, for instance, if it were
done to win a bet. There seems to be in the ludicrous not merely some
error in the taste brought before us, but something which we can
scarcely believe to be the case. This alone would account for some
variation, for what seems unintelligible to the ignorant seems plain to
the educated, and what puzzles the well-informed raises no question
among the inexperienced. The ludicrous depends upon that kind of
intellectual twilight which is the lot of man here below. Were our
knowledge perfect we should no more laugh than angelic beings,[21] were
it final we should be as grave as the lower animals. Humour exists where
the faculties are not fully developed, and our capacities are beyond our
attainments, but fails where the mind has reached its limit, or feels no
forward impulse. Study and high education are adverse to mirth, because
the mind becomes impressed with the universality of law and order, and
when learned men are merry, they are so mostly from being of genial or
sympathetic natures. Density and dullness of intelligence are also
unfavourable to humour