Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

WIT. 171
another person, than when he chooses the topic on which he is
to display his wit. How much would the pleasure we receive
from the Key to the Lock be diminished, if we suspected that the
author had the key in view when he wrote that poem; and that
he introduced some expressions, in order to furnish a subject for
the wit of the commentator. How totally would it destroy the
pleasure we receive friom a parody on a poem, if we suspected
that both were productions of the same author? The truth
seems to be, that when both the related ideas are suggested by
the same person, we have not a very satisfactory proof' of any
thing uncommon in the intellectual habits of the author. We
may suspect that both ideas occurred to him at the same time;
and we know that, in the dullest and most phlegmatic minds,
such extraordinary associations will sometimes take place. But
when the subject of the wit is furnished by one person, and the
wit suggested by another, we have a proof, not only that the
author's mind abounds with such singular associations, but that
he has his wit perfectly at command.
The effect of wit increased by the limitations and diiczulties of
the subject. - As an additional confirmation of these observations,
we may remark, that the more an author is limited by his subject, the more we are pleased with his wit. And, therefore, the
effect of wit does not arise solely from the unexpected relations
which it presents to the mind, but arises, in part, from the surprise it excites at those intellectual habits which give it birth.
It is evident, that the more the author is circumscribed in the
choice of his materials, the greater must be the command which
be has acquired over those associating principles on which wit
depends, and of consequence, according to the foregoing doctrine,
the greater must be the surprise and the pleasure which his wit
produces. In Addison's celebrated verses to Sir Godfrey Kneller on his picture of George the First, in which he compares
the painter to Phidias, and the subjects of his pencil to the
Grecian Deities, the range of the poet's wit was necessarily
confined within very narrow bounds; and what principally
delights us in that performance is, the surprising ease and felicity
with which he runs the parallel between the English history and