qualities of things. Some of
Johnson's most admirable witticisms consist in the suggestion of an
analogy which immediately exposes the absurdity of an action or
proposition; and it is only their ingenuity, condensation, and
instantaneousness which lift them from reasoning into Wit--they are
_reasoning raised to a higher power_. On the other hand, Humor, in its
higher forms, and in proportion as it associates itself with the
sympathetic emotions, continually passes into poetry: nearly all great
modern humorists may be called prose poets.

Some confusion as to the nature of Humor has been created by the fact
that those who have written most eloquently on it have dwelt almost
exclusively on its higher forms, and have defined humor in general as the
_sympathetic_ presentation of incongruous elements in human nature and
life--a definition which only applies to its later development. A great
deal of humor may coexist with a great deal of barbarism, as we see in
the Middle Ages; but the strongest flavor of the humor in such cases will
come, not from sympathy, but more probably from triumphant egoism or
intolerance; at best it will be the love of the ludicrous exhibiting
itself in illustrations of successful cunning and of the _lex talionis_
as in _Reineke Fuchs_, or shaking off in a holiday mood the yoke of a too
exacting faith, as in the old Mysteries. Again, it is impossible to deny
a high degree of humor to many practical jokes, but no sympathetic nature
can enjoy them. Strange as the genealogy may seem, the original
parentage of that wonderful and delicious mixture of fun, fancy,
philosophy, and feeling, which constitutes modern humor, was probably the
cruel mockery of a savage at the writhings of a suffering enemy--such is
the tendency of things toward the good and beautiful on this earth!
Probably the reason why high culture demands more complete harmony with
its moral sympathies in humor than in wit, is that humor is in its nature
more prolix--that it has not the direct and irresistible force of wit.
Wit is an electric shock, which takes us by violence, quite independently
of our predominant mental disposition; but humor approaches us more
deliberately and leaves us masters of ourselves. Hence it is, that while
coarse and cruel humor has almost disappeared from contemporary
literature, coarse and cruel wit abounds; even refined men cannot help
laughing at a coarse _bon mot_ or a lacerating personality, if the
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