Excerpt from Lectures: On the English Comic Writers Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and What they ought to be. Ive weep at what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters: we laugh at what only disappoints our expectations in trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and necessary distress; as we burst into laughter from Want of sympathy with that which is unrea sonable and unnecessary, the absurdity of which provokes our Spleen or mirth, rather than any serious reflections on it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.