It ought, indeed, to be remembered, that every
species of wit written in distant times and in dead languages, appears
with many disadvantages to present readers, from their ignorance of
the manners and customs alluded to and exposed; but the grosness, the
rudeness, and indelicacy of the ancients, will, notwithstanding,
sufficiently appear, even from the sentiments of such critics as
Cicero and Quintilian, who mention corporal defects and deformities as
proper objects of raillery.
If it be now asked to what can we ascribe this superiority of the
moderns in all the species of ridicule? I answer, to the improved
state of conversation. The great geniuses of Greece and Rome were
formed during the times of a republican government: and though it be
certain, as Longinus asserts, that democracies are the nurseries of
true sublimity; yet monarchies and courts are more productive of
politeness. The arts of civility, and the decencies of conversation,
as they unite men more closely, and bring them more frequently
together, multiply opportunities of observing those incongruities and
absurdities of behaviour, on which ridicule is founded. The ancients
had more liberty and seriousness; the moderns have more luxury and
laughter.
* * * * *
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THE _Gentleman's Magazine_.
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