in time or place. 2d. Cause and effect. 3d. Resemblance or contrariety.* Under these heads may be correctly classed, the various causes of that fanciful agreement which produce risible emotions. I. Under that of contiguity we may arrange, 1st. Bodily singularities, including a grotesque dress or manner. 2d. Groups of contrasted figures, such as an old popular caricature which I remember, of "A Macaroni Alderman and his Rib." The one a squat bloated figure dressed in the extravagance of/fashion, the other an extremely tall and meagre female in a dress remarkably prim and formal. I may instance another which is yet popular, "A country Clown placed between a Counsellor and an Attorney.' 3d. A confused assemblage of incongruous ideas, such as often takes place in a play to which you used to be partial, Cross Purposes; and in the cross readings of the newspaper columns. Of this kind of humour some excellent specimens were afforded by the writers of the Rolliad, the Probationary Odes, &c. 4th. Meanness and dignity brought together * See the Economy of Nature, b. x. c. 4. in contact. Under this head we may class the anticlimax, and what the writers of Martinus Scriblerus style the bathos-one of the happiest specimens of which is, "And thou Dalhousie, the great god of war, Perhaps I might add a specimen from Mr. Pope himself "Grac❜d as thou art with all the pow'r of words, · II. Under cause and effect we may place, 1st. Ironical reasoning, and much also of what is called analogical reasoning, which is often as ridiculous as fanciful. As for instance "What does it signify (quoth Albertus) whether my nephew exceeds in the cursus or not? Speed is often a symptom of cowardice, witness hares and deer."-MEM. OF MART. SCRIB. 2d. Cause and effect not corresponding with each other-whence 3d. Ridiculous hyperbole and rant— “Behold a scene of misery and woe! "Here Argus soon might weep himself quite blind, "Ev'n though he had Briareus hundred hands, To wipe those hundred eyes.” *He roar'd so loud, and look'd so wondrous grim, "His very shadow durst not follow him." 4th. Much of what is called caricature "Some have been beaten till they know HUD. p. ii. l. 2.. III. But of all the relations that of resemblance is the most fruitful of ludicrous ideas. 1st. Of these, the more fanciful and unexpected the resemblance, the greater in general will be the effect. Thus Butler describes the horse of his hero : "The beast was sturdy, large, and tall, "Had corns upon his feet and toes, Nor trod upon the ground so soft. "And as that beast would kneel and stoop 86 (Some write) to take his rider up; "So Hudibras his ('tis well-known) "Would often do to set him down." The whole spirit of this passage, you will easily see, depends on the allusions. The majestic state of the horse, which scorned to mend his pace, contrasted with the tenderness of his feet, and the comparison with that of Cæsar, are highly ludicrous. Contrariety or contrast, is classed under the same head of association, by logical writers, as resemblance, and of the witty application of this we have a fine instance in the four last lines which I have just quoted; and in the following from Swift's verses on his death. 68 My female friends, whose tender hearts Madam, your husband will attend "My Lady Club would take it ill, "But dearest friends, they say, must part." The most fruitful source of the burlesque and the mock-heroic is, when the allusion is from the great to the mean or little. "The Greeks renowned, so Homer writes, The order is reversed, however, in some instances of the mock-heroic, as in the Lutrin of Boileau, and the charming Rape of the Lock. "This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, In these lines, and in all the poem, a slight circumstance is magnified into something of apparent importance. The card party is an admirable instance in point |