procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness or semblance of difficulty (as monsters, not for their beauty but their rarity--as juggling tricks, not for their use but their abstruseness--are beheld with pleasure); by diverting the mind from its road of serious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by provoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation or compliance; and by seasoning matter, otherwise distasteful or insipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang.”--_Barrow’s Works_, Sermon 14. Also in the Seventeenth century there sprang into being a definition that has lived, possibly because of the apt wording of its phrase. It is by Thomas Hobbes, who declared for the Derision Theory, but with less sweetness and light than it had hitherto enjoyed. “_Sudden glory_ is the passion which maketh those _Grimaces_ called LAUGHTER,” said Hobbes in the “Leviathan,” “and is caused either by some sudden act of their own, that pleaseth them; or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves. And it is incident most to them, that are conscious of the fewest abilities in themselves; who are forced to keep themselves in their own favour, by observing the imperfections of other men. And therefore much laughter at the defects of others, is a signe of Pusillanimity. For of great minds, one of the proper workes is, to help and free others from scorn; and compare themselves onely with the most able.” and, also from Hobbes: “The passion of laughter is nothing else but _sudden glory_ arising from a sudden conception of some _eminency in ourselves_ by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly: for men laugh at the _follies_ of themselves past, when they come suddenly to remembrance, except they bring with them any present dishonour.”--_Treatise on Human Nature_, chap. ix. There is small doubt that the vogue of Hobbes’ definition of this theory rests on the delightfully expressive, “Sudden Glory,” for those two words beautifully picture the emotion caused by the unexpected opportunity to laugh at the discomfiture of another. Locke followed with a dry and meaningless dissertation, and Coleridge wrote his discerning but all too brief remarks. Many German writers gave profound if unimportant opinions. Addison wrote pleasantly about it, and George Meredith, while accepting the Derision Theory, modified its harshness thus: