lowing genealogy. Truth was the founder of the family, and the father
of Good Sense. Good Sense was the father of Wit, who married a lady of a
collateral line called Mirth, by whom he had issue Humour. Humour
therefore being the youngest of this illustrious family, and descended
from parents of such different dispositions, is very various and unequal
in his temper; sometimes you see him putting on grave looks and a solemn
habit, sometimes airy in his behaviour and fantastic in his dress;
insomuch that at different times he appears as serious as a judge, and as
jocular as a merry-andrew. But, as he has a great deal of the mother in
his constitution, whatever mood he is in, he never fails to make his
company laugh.

But since there is an impostor abroad, who takes upon him the name of
this young gentleman, and would willingly pass for him in the world; to
the end that well-meaning persons may not be imposed upon by cheats, I
would desire my readers, when they meet with this pretender, to look into
his parentage, and to examine him strictly, whether or no he be remotely
allied to Truth, and lineally descended from Good Sense; if not, they may
conclude him a counterfeit. They may likewise distinguish him by a loud
and excessive laughter, in which he seldom gets his company to join with
him. For as True Humour generally looks serious while everybody laughs
about him, False Humour is always laughing whilst everybody about him
looks serious. I shall only add, if he has not in him a mixture of both
parents--that is, if he would pass for the offspring of Wit without
Mirth, or Mirth without Wit, you may conclude him to be altogether
spurious and a cheat.

The impostor of whom I am speaking descends originally from Falsehood,
who was the mother of Nonsense, who was brought to bed of a son called
Phrensy, who married one of the daughters of Folly, commonly known by the
name of Laughter, on whom he begot that monstrous infant of which I have
been here speaking. I shall set down at length the genealogical table of
False Humour, and, at the same time, place under it the genealogy of True
Humour, that the reader may at one view behold their different pedigrees
and relations:--

Falsehood.
Nonsense.
Phrensy.--Laughter.
False Humour.

Truth.
Good Sense.
Wit.--Mirth,
Humour.

I might extend the allegory, by mentioning several of the children of
False Humour, who are more in number than the sands of the sea, and might
in