eate the ludicrous, but where they do not disgust they vivify and make
it more effective. It will be observed that in all of them there is
something we condemn and disapprove. The joy of gain and advantage was
in very early times sufficient to quicken humour in that childlike mirth
which flowed chiefly from delight and exultation, but the "laughter of
pleasure" has passed away, perhaps we require something more keen or
subtle in the maturer age of the world. The accessory emotions are not
at present either so joyous or so offensive as they were in bygone
times. The "faults in manners" of Marmontel, and the "slight
imperfections" of Dugald Stewart, showed that the objectionable
stimulants of the ludicrous were assuming a much milder form.

From the views of Archbishop Whately set forth in his "Logic," we might
suppose that pleasantries, although not devoid of falsity, were usually
of a truly innocuous character--"Jests," he writes, "are mock fallacies,
_i.e._ fallacies so palpable as not to be able to deceive anyone, but
yet bearing just the resemblance of argument which is calculated to
amuse by contrast." Farther on we read again: "There are several
different kind of jokes and raillery, which will be found to correspond
with the different kinds of fallacy." On this we may observe that some
jests, generally of the "manufactured" class, are founded on a false
logical process, but in most cases the error arises more from the matter
than from the form, and often from mistakes of the senses. Although
nearly every misconception may be represented under the form of false
ratiocination, the imperfection almost always lies in one of the
premises, and it is seldom that there is plainly a fault of argument in
humour. If we claim everything as a fallacy of which there is no
evidence, though there seems to be some, we shall embrace a large
area--part of which is usually assigned to falsity, and if we consider
every mistake to come from wrong deduction, we shall convict mankind of
being so full of fallacies as not to be a rational, but a most illogical
animal. Whately says, "The pun is evidently in most instances a mock
argument founded on a palpable equivocation of the middle term--and
others in like manner will be found to correspond to the respective
fallacies."

A pun is the nearest approach to a mere mock fallacy of form, and we see
what poor amusement it generally affords. To feign that because words
have the same sound, they