firmations of some parts of the work, than as essential
to it), were composed, and submitted to the judgment
of the same ingenuous friends. All that follows on the
subject of Elocution hath also undergone the same re-
view. Nor has there been any material alteration
made on these, or any addition to them, except in a
few instances of notes, examples, and verbal correc-
tions, since they were composed
It is also proper to observe here, that since trans-
cribing the present work for the press, a manuscript
was put into his hands by Doctor Beattie, at the very
time that, in order to be favoured with the doctor's
opinion of this performance, the author gave him the
first book for his perusal. Doctor Beattie's tract is
called An Essay on Laughter and Ludicrous Writing.
While the author carefully perused that Essay, it gave
him a very agreeable surprise to discover that, on a
question so nice and curious, there should, without any
previous communication, be so remarkable a coinci-
dence of sentiments in everything wherein their sub-
jects coincide. A man must have an uncommon con-
fidence in his own faculties (I might have said in his
own infallibility) who is not sensibly more satisfied of
the justness of their procedure, especially in abstract
matters, when he discovers such a concurrence with
the ideas and reasoning of writers of discernment.
The subject of that piece is, indeed, Laughter in gen-
eral, with an inquiry into those qualities in the object
by which it is excited. The investigation is conducted
with the greatest accuracy, and the theory confirmed
and illustrated by such a variety of pertinent examples,
as enable us to scrutinize his doctrine on every side,
and view it in almost every possible light. He does
not enter into the specific characters whereby wit and