HUMOUR is often made use of to express the quality of the imagination, which bears a considerable resemblance to wit.
Wit expresses something that is more designed, concerted, regular, and artificial; humour, something that is more wild, loose, extravagant, and fantastical; something which comes upon a man by fits, which he can neither command nor restrain, and which is not perfectly consistent with true politeness. Humour, it has been
Humphrey
Hundred.
been said, is often more diverting than wit; yet a man of wit is as much above a man of humour as a gentleman is above a buffoon; a buffoon, however, will often divert more than a gentleman. The duke of Buckingham, however, makes humour to be all in all; wit, according to him, should never be used, but to add an agreeableness to some proper and just sentiment, which, without some such turn, might pass without its effect. See WIT.