They
may likewise distinguish him by a loud and excessive laughter, in
which he seldom gets his company to join with him. For as True
Humour generally looks serious while everybody laughs about him,
False Humour is always laughing whilst everybody about him looks
serious. I shall only add, if he has not in him a mixture of both
parents--that is, if he would pass for the offspring of Wit without
Mirth, or Mirth without Wit, you may conclude him to be altogether
spurious and a cheat.
The impostor of whom I am speaking descends originally from
Falsehood, who was the mother of Nonsense, who was brought to bed of
a son called Phrensy, who married one of the daughters of Folly,
commonly known by the name of Laughter, on whom he begot that
monstrous infant of which I have been here speaking. I shall set
down at length the genealogical table of False Humour, and, at the
same time, place under it the genealogy of True Humour, that the
reader may at one view behold their different pedigrees and
relations:-
Falsehood.
Nonsense.
Phrensy.--Laughter.
False Humour.
Truth.
Good Sense.
Wit.--Mirth,
Humour.
I might extend the allegory, by mentioning several of the children
of False Humour, who are more in number than the sands of the sea,
and might in particular enumerate the many sons and daughters which
he has begot in this island.
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