Where the tendency exists, the exercise of it is kept down by the usages and feelings of society.

For examples of it (in its full force at any rate) we must go back to a race who are departed.

One remark, however, has occurred to me in regard to the specimens we have of this kind of humour--viz.

that they do not always proceed from the personal wit or cleverness of any of the individuals concerned in them.

The amusement comes from the circumstances, from the concurrence or combination of the ideas, and in many cases from the mere expressions which describe the facts.