Pagina 244 de 734

Be this as it may, whatever he says such things will he also

listen to, since it is commonly held that a man will do what he

will bear to hear: this must, however, be limited; a man will not

do quite all that he will hear: because jesting is a species of

scurrility and there are some points of scurrility forbidden by

law; it may be certain points of jesting should have been also so

forbidden. So then the refined and gentlemanlike man will bear

himself thus as being a law to himself. Such is the mean

character, whether denominated the man of Tact or of Easy

Pleasantry.

But the Buffoon cannot resist the ridiculous, sparing neither

himself nor any one else so that he can but raise his laugh,

saying things of such kind as no man of refinement would say and

some which he would not even tolerate if said by others in his

hearing.

The Clownish man is for such intercourse wholly useless: inasmuch

as contributing nothing jocose of his own he is savage with all

who do.