INVENTION is the Faculty of finding out new _Assortments_, and
_Combinations_, of _Ideas_.
HUMOUR is any _whimsical Oddity_ or _Foible_, appearing in the
_Temper_ or _Conduct_ of a _Person_ in _real Life_.
This _whimsical Oddity_ of Conduct, which generally arises from the
strange _Cast_, or _Turn_ of Mind of a _queer_ Person, may also result
from _accidental_ Mistakes and Embarrassments between other Persons;
who being misled by a wrong Information and Suspicion in regard to a
Circumstance, shall act towards each other upon this Occasion, in the
same _odd whimsical_ manner, as _queer_ Persons.
If a _Person_ in real Life, discovers any odd and remarkable
_Features_ of Temper or Conduct, I call such a Person in the _Book_
of _Mankind_, a _Character_. So that the chief Subjects of HUMOUR are
Persons in real Life, who are _Characters_.
It is easy to be perceived, that HUMOUR, and WIT are extremely
different.
HUMOUR appears only in the _Foibles_ and _whimsical Conduct_ of
_Persons_ in real Life; WIT appears in _Comparisons_, either between
_Persons_ in real Life, or between _other Subjects_.
HUMOUR is the _whimsical Oddity_, or _Foible_, which fairly appears in
its Subject, of itself; whereas WIT, is the _Lustre_ which is thrown upon
_one_ Subject, by the _sudden Introduction_ of another Subject.
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