Jocondus geminum impofuit tibi, Sequana, pontem ; N. B. Jocondus was a monk. Sanzaarius. Chief Juftice. Well! the truth is, Sir John you live in great infamy. Falstaff. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in lefs. Chief Justice. Your means are very flender, and your wafte is great. Falfaff. I would it were otherwife: I would my means were greater and my wafte flenderer. Second Part, Henry IV. act 1. fc. 5. Celia. I pray you bear with me I can go no further. Clown. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you yet I fhould bear no crofs if I did bear you; for I think you have no money in your purse. As you like it, at 2. Sc. 4. He that impofes an oath makes it, To break an oath he never made? Hudibras, part 2. canto 2. The feventh fatire of the first book of Horace is pur pofely contrived to introduce at the close a most execrable pun. Talking of fome infamous wretch whose name was Rex Rupilius, Perfius exclamat, Per magnos, Brute, deos te Hunc regem jugulas? Operum hoc, mihi crede, tuo rum eft. Though playing with words is a mark of a mind at ease, and disposed to any sort of amufement, we muft must not thence conclude that playing with words is always ludicrous. Words are fo intimately connected with thought, that if the subject be really grave, it will not appear ludicrous even in that fantaftic drefs. I am, however, far from recommending it in any serious performance: on the contrary, the difcordance between the thought and expreffion must be disagreeable; witness the following fpecimen. He hath abandoned his phyficians, Madam, under whose practises he hath perfecuted time with hope: and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the lofing of hope by time. All's well that ends well, act 1. fc. I. K. Henry. O my poor kingdom fick with civil blows! Second part, K. Henry IV. If any one fhall obferve, that there is a third fpecies of wit, different from thofe mentioned, confifting in founds 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 fingularity occafions fome degree of furprise. Swift is no lefs fuccefsful than Butler in this fort of wit; witnefs the following inftances: Goddefs-Boddice. Pliny-Nicolini. Ifcariots Chariots. Mitre--Nitre. Dragon Suffragan. A repartee may happen to be witty: but it cannot be confidered as a fpecies of wit; because there are many repartees extremely fmart and yet extremely ferious. I give the following example. A certain petulant Greek, objecting to Anacharfis that he was a Scythian: True, fays Anacharfis, my country dif graces me, but you difgrace your country. This fine turn gives furprife; but it is far from being ludicrous. CHAP. СНАР. XIV. Cuftom and Habit. VIEWING IEWING man as under the influence of novelty, would one fufpect that custom also should influence him? and yet our nature is equally fufceptible of each; not only in different objects, but frequently in the fame. When an object is new, it is enchanting familiarity renders it indifferent; and cuftom, after a longer familiarity, makes it again difagreeable. Human nature diverfified with many and various fprings of action, is wonderfully, and, indulging the expreffion, intricately conftructed. Cuftom hath fuch influence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to its operations if we would be acquainted with human nature. This fubject, in itself obfcure, has been much neglected; and a complete analysis of it would be no cafy tafk. I pretend only to touch it curforily; hoping, however, that what is here laid down, will difpofe diligent inquirers to attempt further difcoveries. Custom refpects the action, habit the agent. By custom we mean a frequent reiteration of the fame act; and by habit, the effect that custom has on the agent. This effect may be either active, witnefs the dexterity produced by cuftom in performing certain exercises; or paflive, as when a thing makes an impreffion on us different from what it did originally. The latter only as relative to the fenfitive part of our nature, comes under the prefent undertaking. This fubject is intricate: fome pleafures are fortified by cuftom; and yet cuftom begets familiarity, and and confequently indifference:* in many inftances, fatiety and difguft are the confequences of reiteration again, though cuftom blunts the edge of dif trefs and of pain, yet the want of any thing to which we have been long accustomed, is a fort of torture. A clue to guide us through all the intricacies of this labyrinth, would be an acceptable prefent. Whatever be the caufe, it is certain that we are much influenced by cuftom: it hath an effect upon our pleasures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and fentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vivacity of youth in middle age it gains ground; and in old age governs without control. In that period of life, generally fpeaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exercife at a certain hour, go to rest at a certain hour, all by the direction of habit: nay, a particular feat, table, bed, comes to be effential; and a habit in any of these cannot be controlled without uneafinefs. Any flight or moderate pleasure frequently reiterated for a long time, forms a peculiar connection between us and the thing that causes the pleasure. This connection termed habit, has the effect to awaken our defire or appetite for that thing when it returns not as ufual. During the courfe of enjoyment, the pleasure rifes infenfibly higher and higher till a habit be established; at which time the pleafure is at its height. It continues not however ftationary: the fame cuftomary reiteration which carried it to its height, brings it down again by infenfible degrees, Ifall the year were playing holidays, even Firft part, Henry IV. a 1. fc. CHAP. XIV. even lower than it was at firft: but of that circumftance afterward. What at prefent we have in view, is to prove by experiments, that thofe things which at first are but moderately agreeable, are the aptest to become habitual. Spirituous liquors, at first fcarce agreeable, readily produce an habitual appetite and custom prevails fo far, as even to make us fond of things originally difagreeable, fuch as coffee, affa-foetida, and tobacco; which is pleasantly illuftrated by Congreve : Fainali. For a paffionate lover, methinks you are a man fomewhat too difcerning in the failings of your mistress. Mirabell. And for a difcerning man, fomewhat too pafiionate a lover; for I like her with all her faults; nay like her for her faults. Her follies are fo natural, or fo artful, that they become her; and those affectations which in another woman would be odious, ferve but to make her more agreeable. I'll tell thee, Fainall, the once us'd me with that infolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces, fifted her, and feparated her failings; I ftudy'd 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was fo large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other, to hate her heartily : to which end I fo us'd myfelf to think of 'em, that at length, contrary to my design and expectation, they gave me every hour lefs and lefs difturbance; till in a few days, it became habitual to me to remember 'em without being displeased. They are now grown as familiar to me as my own frailties; and in all probability, in a little time longer, I fhall like 'em as well. The way of the world, act 1. fc. 3. A walk upon the quarter-deck, though intolerably confined, becomes however fo agreeable by cuftom, that a failor in his walk on fhore, confines himself commonly within the fame bounds. I knew a man who had relinquifhed the fea for a country-life: in the corner of his garden he reared an artificial mount with a level fummit, refembling moft accurately a quarter |
