Besides, the sentiment would
be likely to nauseate us by its excess or its morbidity, except for the
healthy salt of humor. Humor makes this essay instructive and interesting.
Next we present two letters from Stevenson.
Here we see that humor makes commonplace things interesting.
How deadly dull would be the details Stevenson gives in these letters
but for the enlivenment of humor! By what other method could anything
worth reading have been gotten out of the facts?
The selection from Charles Lamb is an illustration of how humor may save
the utterly absurd from being unreadable. Lamb had absolutely nothing
to say when he sat down to write this letter; and yet he contrived to be
amusing, if not actually interesting.
The master of humor can draw upon the riches of his own mind, and
thereby embellish and enliven any subject he may desire to write upon.
Of these three selections, the easiest to imitate is Addison.
First, we should note the old-fashioned phrasing and choice of words,
and perhaps translate Addison into simple, idiomatic, modern English,
altering as little as possible. We note that the letter offered by
Addison is purposely filled with all the faults of rhetoric which we
never find in his own writing.
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