gnorant man, so long
as he is clear of Bedlam, may have an opinion.

I am quite positive that of the two, humor is the more comfortable and
more livable quality. Humorous persons, if their gift is genuine and
not a mere shine upon the surface, are always agreeable companions
and they sit through the evening best. They have pleasant mouths
turned up at the corners. To these corners the great Master of
marionettes has fixed the strings and he holds them in his nimblest
fingers to twitch them at the slightest jest. But the mouth of a
merely witty man is hard and sour until the moment of its discharge.
Nor is the flash from a witty man always comforting, whereas a
humorous man radiates a general pleasure and is like another candle in
the room.

I admire wit, but I have no real liking for it. It has been too often
employed against me, whereas humor is always an ally. It never points
an impertinent finger into my defects. Humorous persons do not sit
like explosives on a fuse. They are safe and easy comrades. But a
wit's tongue is as sharp as a donkey driver's stick. I may gallop the
faster for its prodding, yet the touch behind is too persuasive for
any comfort.

Wit is a lean creature with sharp inquiring nose, whereas humor has a
kindly eye and comfortable girth. Wit, if it be necessary, uses malice
to score a point--like a cat it is quick to jump--but humor keeps the
peace in an easy chair. Wit has a better voice in a solo, but humor
comes into the chorus best. Wit is as sharp as a stroke of lightning,
whereas humor is diffuse like sunlight. Wit keeps the season's
fashions and is precise in the phrases and judgments of the day, but
humor is concerned with homely eternal things. Wit wears silk, but
humor in homespun endures the wind. Wit sets a snare, whereas humor
goes off whistling without a victim in its mind. Wit is sharper
company at table, but humor serves better in mischance and in the
rain. When it tumbles wit is sour, but humor goes uncomplaining
without its dinner. Humor laughs at another's jest and holds its
sides, while wit sits wrapped in study for a lively answer. But it is
a workaday world in which we live, where we get mud upon our boots and
come weary to the twilight--it is a world that grieves and suffers
from many wounds in these years of war: and therefore as I think of my
acquaintance, it is those who are humorous in its best and truest
meaning rather than those who are witty who give the more profi