Curiosities & wonders > Reflections upon laughter

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REFLECTIONS
But Mr. Hobbes, who very much owes his
character of a Philofbpher to his afliiming po-
fitive lolemn airs, which he ufes moft when
he is going to aflert fbme palpable abfurdity,
or fbme ill-natured nonfenfe, allures us, that
“ Laughter is nothing elfe but (udden glory,
(t arifing from fbme fudden conception of fbme
“ eminency in ourfelves, by comparifbn with
“ the infirmity of others, or with our own fbr-
“ merly: for men laugh at the follies of them-
“ felves paft, when they come fuddenly to re-
“ memberance, except they bring with them
“ any prefent difhonour.”
This notion the authors of the Spectators,
No 47, have adopted from Mr. Hobbes. That
bold author having carried on his inquiries, in
a lingular manner, without regard to autho¬
rities j and having fallen into a way of {peak¬
ing, which was much more intelligible than
that of the Schoolmen, fbon became agreeable
to many free wits of his age. His grand view
was to deduce all human actions from Self-
Love : by fbme bad fortune he has over-look¬
ed every thing which is generous or kind in
mankind; and reprefents men in that light in
which a thorow knave or coward beholds them,
fu(petting all friendlhip, love, or fbcial affe¬
ction, of hypocrify, or felfifh defign or fear.
The learned world has often been-told that
P uffendorf had ftrongly imbibed Hobbes’s firft
principles.