ABSTRACT
No well-informed Englishman would laugh at the blunders of such a character as little Dominick; but there are people who justify the assertion, that laughter / always rises from a sense of real or imaginary superiority. Now if it be true, that laughter has its source of vanity, as the most ignorant are generally the most vain, they must enjoy this pleasure in its highest perfection. Unconscious of their own deficiencies, and consequently fearless of becoming in their turn the objects of ridicule, they enjoy in full security the delight of humbling their superiors. How much are they to be admired for the courage with which they apply, on all occasions, their test of truth! Wise men may be struck with admiration, respect, doubt, or humility; but the ignorant, happily unconscious that they know nothing, can be checked in their merriment by no consideration, human or divine. Theirs is the sly sneer, the dry joke, and the horse laugh: theirs the comprehensive range of ridicule, which takes ‘every creature in, of every kind.’ No fastidious delicacy spoils their sports of fancy: though ten times told, the tale to them never can be tedious; though dull ‘as the fat weed that grows on Lethe’s bank,’ the jest for them has all the poignancy of satire: on the very offals, the garbage of wit, they can feed and batten. a 85 Happy they who can find in every jester the wit of Sterne or Swift; 86 who else can wade through hundreds of thickly printed. pages to obtain for their reward such witticisms as the following: - b
