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the other hand, the affault of him who ridicules is from its very nature covert and oblique, What we profefs to contemn, we fcorn to con

fute. It is on this account that the reasoning in ridicule, if at all delicate, is always conveyed under a fpecies of difguife. Nay, fometimes, which is more aftonishing, the contempt itself seems to be diffembled, and the rallier affumes an air of arguing gravely in defence of that which he actually expofeth as ridiculous. Hence, undoubtedly, it proceeds, that a ferious manner commonly adds energy to a joke. The fact, however, is, that in this cafe the very diffimulation is diffembled. He would not have you think him in earneft, though he affects the appearance of it; knowing that otherwife his end would be fruftrated. He wants that you fhould perceive that he is diffembling, which no real diffembler ever wanted. It is, indeed, this circumstance alone, which diftinguishes an ironical. expreffion from a lie. Accordingly, through the thinness of the veil employed, he takes care that the fneer fhall be difcovered. You are quickly made to perceive his aim, by means of the ftrange arguments he produces, the abfurd confequences he draws, the odd embarrafments, which in his perfonated character he is

involved

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involved in, and the fill odder methods he takes to difentangle himself. In this manner doctrines and practices are treated, when exposed by a continued run of irony; a way of refutation. which bears a strong analogy to that species of demonftration termed by mathematicians, apagogical, as reducing the adverfary to what is contradictory or impracticable. This method feems to have been firft introduced into moral fubjects, and employed with fuccefs, by the father of ancient wisdom, Socrates. As the attack of ridicule, whatever form it adopts, is always indirect, that of irony may be faid to be reverted. It resembles the manner of fighting afcribed to the ancient Parthians, who were ever more formidable in flight than in onfet; who looked towards one quarter, and fought towards the oppofite; whofe bodies moved in one direction, and their arrows in the contrary *.

Ir remains now to confirm and illuftrate this branch of the theory, by fuitable examples. And, not to encumber the reader with a needlefs multiplicity of excerptions, I shall first recur

Miles fagittas et celerem fugam

Parthi

-perhorrefcit. Hor.

Fidentemque fuga Parthum verfifque fagittis. Virg.

to

to thofe already produced. The first, fecond, and fifth paffages from Butler, the first from Pope, the first from Young, and the quotation from the Dispensary, though witty, have no ridicule in them. Their whole aim is to divert by the oddness of the imagery. This merits a careful and particular attention, as on the accuracy of our conceptions here, depends, in a great measure, our forming a juft notion of the relation which ridicule bears to wit, and of the diftinction that fubfifts between them. Let this, therefore, be carefully remembered, that where nothing reprehenfible, or fuppofed to be reprehenfible, either in conduct or in fentiment is, ftruck at, there is properly no fatire, (or, as it is fometimes termed emphatically enough, pointed wit) and confequently no ridicule.

THE example that firft claims a particular notice here, is one from Young's Satires,

Health chiefly keeps an Atheist in the dark.

The wittiness of this paffage was already illuftrated, I fhall now endeavour to fhew the argument couched under it, both which together conftitute the ridicule. Atheism is unreasonable.' Why? The Atheist neither founds his unbelief on ⚫ reason, nor will attend to it. Was ever an • Infidel

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• Infidel in health convinced by reafoning; or • did he ever in fickness need to be reasoned with • on this subject? The truth then is, that the daring principles of the libertine are folely fupported by the vigour and healthiness of his • conftitution, which incline him to pleasure, thoughtleffnefs, and prefumption; accordingly you find, that when this foundation is fubverted, the whole fabric of Infidelity falls to pieces.' There is rarely, however, fo much of argument in ridicule as may be discovered in this paffage. Generally, as was obferved already, it is but hinted in a fingle word or phrase, or appears to be glanced at occafionally, without any direct intention. Thus in the third quotation from Butler there is an oblique thrust at Homer, for his manner of recurring so often poems of fo great dignity, to fuch mean and trifling epithets. The fourth and the fixth fatirize the particular fanatical practice, and fanatical opinion, to which they refer. To affign a prepofterous motive to an action, or to produce an abfurd argument for an opinion, is an innuendo, that no good motive or argument can be given. The citations from the Rape of the Lock

in

• We have an excellent fpecimen of this fort of ridicule, in Montefquieu's Spirit of Laws, B. xv. C. 5. where the practice of

Lock are no otherwife to be confidered as ridi cule, than as a lively exhibition of fome follies, either in difpofition or in behaviour, is the ftrongeft diffuafive from imitating them. In this way humour rarely fails to have fome raillery in it, in like manner as the pathetic often perfuades without argument, which, when obvious, is fupplied by the judgment of the hearer. The fecond example feems intended to disgrace the petty quaintness of a fop's manner, and the emptiness of his conversation, as being a huddle of oaths and nonsense. The third finely satirizes the value which the ladies too often put upon the mereft trifles. To thefe I fhall add one inftance more from Hudibras, where it is faid of priests and exorcifts,

Supplied with spiritual provision,
And magazines of ammunition,
With croffes, relics, crucifixes,
Beads, pictures, rofaries, and pixes,
The tools of working out salvation,
By mere mechanic operation .

of Europeans in enflaving the negroes, is ironically juftified, in a manner which does honour to the author's humanity and love of justice, at the fame time that it difplays a happy talent in ridicule.

+ Ridicule refulting from a fimple, but humorous narration, is finely illuftrated in the firft ten or twelve provincial letters.

Part III. Canto 1.

3

The

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