Paris. -Sweet Helen, I must woo you, Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Sc 2. The pun is in the close. The word disarm has a double meaning: it signifies to take off a man's armour, and also to subdue him in fight. We are directed to the latter sense by the context; but, with regard to Helen, the word holds only true in the former sense. I go on with other examples: Martial, l. iii epigr. 61, Jocondus geminum imposuit tibi Sequana, pontem ; Zanazarius, N. B. Jocondus was a monk. Chief Justice, Well! the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Falstaff. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less. Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. Falstaff. 'I would it were otherwise : I would my means were greater and my waist slenderer. second Part, Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 1. Celia. "I pray you bear with me, I can go no further. Clown. For ny part, I had rather bear with you than bear you : yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. As Like it, Act II. Sc. 4. He that imposes an oath makes it, Hudibrus, Part II. Canto ii. The seventh satire of the first book of Horace is purposely contrived to introduce at the close a most execrable pun. Talking of some infamous wretch whose name was Rex Rupilius. Persius exclamat, Per magnos, Brute, deos te Hunc regem jugulas? Operum hoc, mihi crede, tuorum est. Though playing with words is a mark of a mind at ease, and disposed to any sort of amusement, we must not thence conclude that playing with words is always ludicrous. Words are so intimately connected with thought, that if the subject be really grave, it will not appear ludicrous even in that fantastic dress. I am, however, far from recommending it in any serious performance: on the contrary, the discordance between the thought and expression must be disagreeable; witness the following specimen. He hath abandoned his physicians, Madam, under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the losing of hope by time. All's well that ends well, Act I. Sc. 1. K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows! Second Part, K. Henry IV. If any one shall observe, that there is a third. species of wit, different from those mentioned, consisting in sounds merely, I am willing to give it place. And indeed it must be admitted, that many of Hudibras's double rhymes come under the definition of wit given in the beginning of this chapter: they are ludicrous, and their singularity occasions some degree of surprise. Swift is no less success ful than Butler in this sort of wit; witness the following instances: Goddess-Boddice. Pliny-Ni colina. Iscariots-Chariots. Mitre--Nitre. Dragon -Suffragan. A repartee may happen to be witty: but it cannot be considered as a species of wit, because there are many repartees extremely smart, and yet extremely serious. I give the following example. A certain petulent Greek, objecting to Anacharsis that he was a Scythian: True, says Anacharsis, my country disgraces me, but you disgrace your country. This fine turn gives surprise; but it is far from being ludicrous. CHAPTER XIV. Custom and Habit. VIEWING man as under the influence of hovelty, would one suspect that custom also should influence him? and yet our nature is equally susceptible of each; not only in different objects, but frequently in the same. When an object is new, it is enchanting: familiarity renders it indifferent; and custom, after a longer familiarity, makes it again disagreeable. Human nature, diversified with many and various springs of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expression, intricately constructed. Custom hath such influence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to its operations if we would be acquainted with humih nature. This subject, in VOL. I. 400 itself obscure, has been much neglected; and a complete analysis of it would be no easy task. I pretend only to touch it cursorily; hoping, however, that what is here laid down, will dispose diligent inquirers to attempt further discoveries. Custom respects the action, habit the agent. By custom we mean a frequent reiteration of the same act; and by habit, the effect that custom has on the agent. This effect may be either active, witness the dexterity produced by custom in performing certain exercises ; or passive, as when a thing makes an impression on us different from what it did originally. The latter only, as relative to the sensitive part of our nature, comes under the present undertaking. This subject is intricate: some pleasures are fortified by custom; and yet custom begets familiarity, and consequently indifference:* in many instances, satiety and disgust are the consequences of reiteration: again, though custom blunts the edge of distress and of pain, yet the want of any thing to which we have been long accustomed, is a sort of torture. A clue to guide us through all the intricacies of this labyrinth, would be an acceptable present. Whatever be the cause, it is certain that we are much influenced by custom: it hath an effect upon our pleasures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and sentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vivacity of youth: in middle age it gains ground; and in old age governs without controul. In that period of life, generally speaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exercise at a certain hour, go to rest at a certain hour, all by the direction of habit: nay, a particular seat, table, bed, comes to be essential; and a habit in any of these cannot be controlled without uneasiness. * If all the year were playing holidays, First Part, Henry IV. Act I, Sc. 3 Any slight or moderate pleasure frequently reiterated for a long time, forms a peculiar connexion between us and the thing that causes the pleasure. This connexion, termed habit, has the effect to awaken our desire or appetite for that thing when it returns not as usual. During the course of enjoyment, the pleasure rises insensibly higher and higher till a habit be established; at which time the pleasure is at its height. It continues not however stationary : the same customary reiteration which carried it to its height, brings it down again by insensible degrees, even lower than it was at first : but of that circumstance afterward. · What at present we have in view, is to prove by experiments, that those things which at first are but moderately agreeable, are the aptest to become habitual. Spirituous liquors, at first scarce agreeable, readily produce an habitual appetite: and custom prevails so far, as even to make us fond of things originally disagreeable, such as coffee, assafoetida, and tobacco; which is pleasantly illustrated by Congreve : a Fainall. For a passionate lover, methinks you are a man somewhat too discerning in the failings of your mistress. Mirabell. And for a discerning man, somewhat too passionate ą, lover; for I like her with all her faults; nay, like her for her faults. Her follies are so natural, or so artful, that they become her; and those affectations which in another woman would be odious, serve but to make her more agreeable. I'll tell thee, Fainall, she once used me with that insolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces, sifted her, and separated her failings ; I study'd 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was so large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other, to hate her heartily: to which end I se |