prolonging our mirth than all the attempts we usually make to develop it
and come closer to the point. Sydney Smith was of opinion that much
might be effected by perseverance, and this is the reason that he was
often guilty of that bad and overstrained wit which led Lord Brougham to
call him "too much of a Jack pudding."

We cannot by calculation and design produce anything worthy of the name
of humour. It is generally true that any kind of reflection is inimical
to it. But no doubt the great cause of its evanescence is that it leads
to nothing, and adds nothing to our information. The most fleeting
humour is that which is on unimportant subjects, as in comic poems and
squibs, which may show considerable ingenuity, but have no interest. It
is the nugatory and negative character of humour that makes it so
short-lived. Hence, also, it is best at intervals, and in small
quantities. The fact that when any attempt is made to explain a jest and
glean any information from it the humour vanishes, seems much opposed to
its containing any principle of rebirth.

Many of the philosophers, who have discarded the idea of there being
condemnation in the ludicrous, have been misled either by not
distinguishing between the ludicrous and the gift of humour, or by
regarding the grain of truth which is imbedded in all wit as the entire
or principal cause of our amusement. To form the complication necessary
for humorous sayings there must be, of course, some element of truth to
oppose the falsity in them. The course in forming witty sayings is
generally the following. We remark some real resemblance between things
which has hitherto been unnoticed. We then, upon this foundation, make a
false statement, deriving so much colour from the truth that we cannot
easily disengage one from the other. The resemblance must be something
striking and unusual, or it would not support a statement which opposes
our ordinary experience. As in the ludicrous there is reality, so in
humour there must be some element of truth, or we should regard the
invention as simple falsehood. To this extent we are prepared to agree
with Boileau that "the basis of all wit is truth," but the result and
general impression it gives is falsity.

Addison's Genealogy of Humour:--

Truth
Good Sense
Wit Mirth
Humour

at first seems to be erroneous, but he does not really mean to say that
there is no falsehood in it, but that it does not