This _jovial_ and _gay_ Humour, without any thing _envious_, _malicious_, _mischievous_, or _despicable_, and continually _quicken'd_ and adorn'd with _Wit_, yields that peculiar Delight, without any _Alloy_, which we all feel and acknowledge in _Falstaff's_ Company.--_Ben Johnson_ has _Humour_ in his _Characters_, drawn with the most masterly Skill and Judgment; In Accuracy, Depth, Propriety, and Truth, he has no _Superior_ or _Equal_ amongst _Ancients_ or _Moderns_; But the _Characters_ he exhibits are of _satirical_, and _deceitful_, or of a _peevish_ or _despicable_ Species; as _Volpone_, _Subtle_, _Morose_, and _Abel Drugger_; In all of which there is something very justly to be _hated_ or _despised_; And you feel the same Sentiments of _Dislike_ for every other _Character_ of _Johnson_'s; so that after you have been _gratify'd_ with their _Detention_ and _Punishment_, you are quite tired and disgusted with their Company:--Whereas _Shakespear_, besides the peculiar _Gaiety_ in the _Humour_ of _Falstaff_, has guarded him from disgusting you with his _forward Advances_, by giving him _Rank_ and _Quality_; from being _despicable_ by his real good _Sense_ and excellent _Abilities_; from being _odious_ by his _harmless Plots_ and _Designs_; and from being _tiresome_ by his inimitable Wit, and his new and incessant _Sallies_ of highest _Fancy_ and _Frolick_. This discovers the _Secret_ of carrying COMEDY to the highest Pitch of Delight; Which lies in drawing the Persons exhibited, with such chearful and amiable _Oddities_ and _Foibles_, as you would chuse in your own _Companions_ in _real Life; --otherwise, tho' you may be diverted at first with the _Novelty_ of a Character, and with a proper _Detection_ and _Ridicule_ of it, yet its _Peevishness_, _Meanness_, or _Immorality_, will begin to disgust you after a little Reflection, and become soon _tiresome_ and _odious_; It being certain, that whoever cannot be endured as an _accidental_ Companion in _real Life_, will never become, for the very same Reasons, a _favorite comic Character_ in the Theatre. This _Relish_ for _generous_ and _worthy_ Characters alone, which we all feel upon the _Theatre_, where no Biass of Envy, Malice, or personal Resentment draws us aside, seems to be some Evidence of our _natural_ and _genuin_ Disposition to _Probity_ and _Virtue_; tho' the Minds of most Persons being early and deeply _tinged_ with vicious Passions, it is no wonder that _Stains_ have been generally mistaken for _original Colours_. It may be added, that _Humour_ is the most exquisite and delightful, when the _Oddities_ and _Foibles_ introduc'd are not _mischievous_ or _sneaking_, but _free_, _jocund_, and _liberal_; and such as result from a generous Flow of Spirits, and a warm universal _Benevolence_.