in my [Volume 1 link:
] raised a Speculation on the Notion of a Modern Philosopher
, who describes the first Motive of Laughter to be a secret Comparison which we make between our selves, and the Persons we laugh at; or, in other Words, that Satisfaction which we receive from the Opinion of some Pre-eminence in our selves, when we see the Absurdities of another or when we reflect on any past Absurdities of our own. This seems to hold in most Cases, and we may observe that the vainest Part of Mankind are the most addicted to this Passion.
I have read a Sermon of a Conventual in the Church of
Rome
, on those Words of the Wise Man,
I said of Laughter, it is mad; and of Mirth, what does it?
Upon which he laid it down as a Point of Doctrine, that Laughter was the Effect of Original Sin, and that