The Sentiments of these eminent Writers upon WIT, having thus been exhibited, I come next to the Subject of HUMOUR. This has been _defined_ by some, in the following Manner, with great _Perspicuity._ --HUMOUR is the genuine WIT of _Comedies_,--which has afforded vast Satisfaction to many _Connoissures_ in the _Belles Lettres_; especially as WIT has been supposed to be incapable of any _Definition._ This Subject has also been particularly considered by the _Spectatator_ No. 35. inserted at the End of the following _Essay_. Mr. _Addison_ therein _gravely_ remarks, that It is indeed much easier to describe what is not HUMOUR, than what it is; which, I humbly apprehend, is no very _important_ Piece of Information.--He adds, And very difficult to define it otherwise, than as _Cowly_ has done WIT, by Negatives. This Notion of _defining_ a Subject by _Negatives_, is a favourite _Crotchet_, and may perhaps be assumed upon other Occasions by future Writers: I hope therefore I shall be pardoned, if I offer a proper Explanation of so good a _Conceit_;--To declare then, _That a Subject is only to be_ DEFINED _by_ NEGATIVES, is to cloath it in a _respectable_ Dress of _Darkness_. And about as much as to say, That it is a _Knight_ of _tenebrose Virtues_; or a _serene Prince_, of the _Blood_ of _Occult Qualities_. Mr. _Addison_ proceeds, Were I to give my own Notions of HUMOUR, I should deliver them after _Plato's_ Manner, in a Kind of Allegory; and by supposing HUMOUR to be a Person, deduce to him, all his Qualifications, according to the following Genealogy: TRUTH was the Founder of the Family, and the Father of GOOD SENSE; GOOD SENSE was the Father of WIT, who married a Lady of a collateral Line called MIRTH, by whom he had Issue HUMOUR. --It is very unfortunate for this _Allegorical_ Description, that there is not one Word of it just: For TRUTH, GOOD SENSE, WIT, and MIRTH, represented to be the immediate _Ancestors_ of HUMOUR; whereas HUMOUR is derived from the _Foibles_, and whimsical _Oddities_ of _Persons_ in real Life, which flow rather from their _Inconsistencies_, and _Weakness_, than from TRUTH and GOOD SENSE; Nor is WIT any _Ancestor_ of HUMOUR, but of a quite different _Family_; it being notorious that much HUMOUR may be drawn from the Manners of _Dutchmen_, and of the most formal and dull Persons, who are yet never guilty of WIT. Again, MIRTH is not so properly the _Parent_ of HUMOUR, as the _Offspring_.--In short, this whole _Genealogy_ is a _nubilous_ Piece of Conceit, instead of being any _Elucidation_ of HUMOUR. It is a formal Method of trifling, introduced under a deep Ostentation of Learning, which deserves the severest Rebuke.--But I restrain my Pen, recollecting the _Visions_ of MIRZA, and heartily profess my high Veneration for their admirable Author.