" Could the fanaticism of the
collectors of worthless rarities be more admirably caricatured than thus
unconsciously by our passive enthusiast?
I think no one can go through a museum of natural curiosities, or see
certain animals, without a feeling that Nature herself has a sense of
the comic. There are some donkeys that one can scarce look at without
laughing (perhaps on Cicero's principle of the _haruspex haruspicem_)
and feeling inclined to say, "My good fellow, if you will keep my secret
I will keep yours." In human nature, the sense of the comic seems to be
implanted to keep man sane, and preserve a healthy balance between body
and soul. But for this, the sorcerer Imagination or the witch Enthusiasm
would lead us an endless dance.
The advantage of the humorist is that he cannot be a man of one
idea--for the essence of humor lies in the contrast of two. He is the
universal disenchanter. He makes himself quite as much the subject of
ironical study as his neighbor. Is he inclined to fancy himself a great
poet, or an original thinker, he remembers the man who dared not sit
down because a certain part of him was made of glass, and muses
smilingly, "There are many forms of hypochondria." This duality in his
mind which constitutes his intellectual advantage is the defect of his
character. He is futile in action because in every path he is confronted
by the horns of an eternal dilemma, and is apt to come to the conclusion
that nothing is very much worth the while.
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