Why, then, put forth as a discovery that one may have a sense of humor without being humorous and vice versa?
Humor is creative, while the sense of humor is merely receptive and appreciative.
Many great humorists have little or no sense of humor. Try to tell a joke to an accredited joker and note his blank expression of uncomprehension. It is because he has no sense of humor that he takes himself seriously.
Such was the case with Dickens, with Carlyle, with many renowned wits. The humorist without the sense of humor is a bore. He tells long, detailed yarns, proud of himself, and not seeing his hearers’ lack of interest.
The man with a sense of humor is a joy to know and to be with.
The man who possesses both is already an immortal.
Now as the sense of humor is negative, recipient, while humor is positive and creative, it follows that a sense of humor alone cannot produce humorous literature.
These mute, inglorious Miltons, therefore, have no place in our Outline, but they deserve a passing word of recognition for the assistance they have been to the humorists, by way of being applauding audiences.
For humor, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One with an acute sense of humor will see comic in stones, wit in the running brooks,—while a dull or absent sense of humor can see no fun save in the obvious jest.
The lines,