MR. H. D. TRAILL AND WORLD-HUMOUR.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:.
SIR,—I agree with the whole of Mr. Cator's interesting letter in the Spectator of June 8th, with the exception, if it be an exception, that (for reasons given at length in my " Recollec- tions of Mark Pattison") the qualities of a sage and of a saint seem to me quite incommensurable (" Stones of Stumbling," p. 143 et seq.) As Renan says : " Chaque ordre de grandeur a sa maitrise a part et ne doit point i!tre com- Fare a d'autres." Mr. Cator's suggestive remark that we "cure tolerant mainly because we only half-believe" reminds ute of a talk which I once had with the lamented H. D. Trail! about Falstaff's humour as exemplified in his famous speech about—I had almost said against—" honour." How would such a moralist as John Mill be affected by that speech? " Of course," replied Traill, " he would understand what the words mean. But the tone of the passage would be repugnant to him, and he would keep his mind off the subject." Is there any truth in the charge that women are generally lacking in humour? He shrugged his shoulders : " There is a great deal of truth in it ; and the simple reason is that they believe in their ideals more than we believe in ours." Alas ! would in its modern sense, be entitled to its derivation from rie Train seemed to me to use the word " humour " in a peculiar sense, and by way of distinction we afterwards talked of "world-humour," meaning by that term the humour of one who habitually regards human failings as part and parcel of human nature. It is of such a htuuourist that Scherer remarks approvingly : " " Il s'amuse de l'humanite, mais sans amertume." Let me add that this world-humour gives a subtle relish to the novels of Mr. Norris, that Epicurean successor of Thackeray who, not having Thackeray's bitter- ness, has but little of his tonic quality, and who, partly on this account, is less generally popular than he deserves to be. Has any other English writer given so frequent and so graceful an expression to the thought that, though none but fools make a mock at sin," wise men have to laugh to prevent weeping at the ingrained incongruity of life 9-1 am,
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