[268] The absence in the East of the comic spirit as expressing itself in the art of comedy, a point noted by Mr. Meredith, is of course not conclusive with respect to the existence of the humorous disposition.
[269] M. Bédier has a delicate characterisation of this French spirit in the Contes; touching on its want of depth and arrière-pensée, its spice of malice, its joyous good sense, its irony, which though a little coarse is yet precise and just, op. cit., p. 278.
[270] This redeeming quality of the Irish bull is indistinctly perceived by the Edgeworths in their essay on the subject, in which they speak of the Irishman’s habit of using figurative and witty language. See The Book of Bulls, by G. R. Neilson (in which the Edgeworths’ essay is included).
[271] Quoted by Meredith, op. cit., p. 87.
[272] See his son’s Life, chap. vii. (vol. i., p. 167).
[273] The question is left an open one by his biographer, J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly. See Life of Cervantes, p. 207.
[274] Causeries du Lundi, vol. iii., pp. 3, 4.
[275] Logic Deductive and Inductive, by Carveth Read.
[276] Bernard’s translation of The Kritik of Judgment, p. 226.
[277] Good illustrations will be found in the story of Mr. Bernard Capes, The Lake of Wine, chap. ii. and chap. xxxii.