UNIVERSITY OF OREGON MONTHLY
17
humor rather than sarcasm^ a humor which he knew exactly hoW“
Io use, in order to make, himself heard whether it be in the coffee
house or in the boudoir of some court beauty. Allvover London
people read the “Spectator” eagerly th a t' they- might .eufoy the
quiet drollery of Addison. His writing is* ^p^full of sympathy, at
times Sven pathos, that the rtibsVsensitive could not take Offense.
In his. essays he laughs with hearty good-will at the follies of/the
court, the uselessness
the fine ladies and gentlemen of the day.
These' empty-headed flowers of fashion he could have reached in
no dither way and -yet they were anxious to read anything that Ad
dison m ight write. Thus, little by little, his g H g l had its in
fluence upon the corruption of the'court,’, an influence .¿which worked
slpwJy and quietly and was probably hardly*'realized until long after
his death.
, It is an- especially noticeable fact -in regard to ridicule’ that >tt
has in modern times become the most popular weapon of literature.
Nearly'all of the recent novels, that is'- those-of teal literary* value,
the productions of such men as Shaw and Wells, are-written in a
satirical mood. Ridicule is, the favorite method of attack? in political
speeches; magazine articles,'and even newspaper editorials-run in
3 satirical .vein. In this day of; invective? against social and govern
mental evils ridicule seems to fle-considered th e 'm q st vital and
powerful force. j
.Why ;is* it, I wonder, that .ridicule has this pow er to work re
form where laws, where, reason- and wherel sermons fail? Partly
because it reaches »those who either do-not know the law or skilh
fully evade it, those who are too ignorant to understand argument
arid, would riot .-listen if they, could, and those who disdain all ser-
simply because they ate sermons. -The prime reason, how-
I R lies in man’s .vanity-/ and' back of his vanity, in -his.isocial
instinct ,He must stand well in the eyes of his neighbors,,and ridi
cule* h e feels to he the fatal' biow. yzhich will deprive'him of social
position.
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B ffl ¿ '¿ ^ J e n n i e Lilly, TO.