[8]
For,
as Cicero1 says, “Laughter has its basis in some
kind or other of deformity or ugliness,” and whereas,
when we point to such a blemish in others, the
result is known as wit, it is called folly when the
same jest is turned against ourselves.
Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial
matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by
buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious
force of its own which it is very hard to resist.
1 De Or. II. lviii. 236. Where? De Or. II. Iviii. 236.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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