How  vital  has  been  the  influence  of  the  comic  spirit  on  the
novelist  we  may  judge,  not  merely  by  its  abundant  evidence  in  his
works,  or  by  his  splendid  ode  'To  the  Comic  Spirit,'  but  by  his
only  essay  of  importance  being  that  '  On  the  Idea  of  Comedy  and
of  the  Uses  of  the  Comic  Spirit,'  delivered  at  the  London  Institu-
tion, February  i,  1877.  A  few  brief  passages  from  the  revised
edition  of  the  lecture,  as  published  in  book-form  in  1897,  will  put
us  in  possession  of  Meredith's  main  ideas  of  Comedy  before  we
proceed  to  consider  them  in  the  light  of  criticism.  Let  us  first  note
these  distinctions  and  their  personal  amplications  :

You  may  estimate  your  capacity  for  comic  perception  by  being
able  to  detect  the  ridicule  of  them  you  love,  without  loving  them
less  :  and  more  by  being  able  to  see  yourself  somewhat  ridiculous  in
dear  eyes,  and  accepting  the  correction  their  image  of  you  proposes.
If  you  detect  the  ridicule,  and  your  kindliness  is  chilled  by  it,
you  are  slipping  into  the  grasp  of  Satire.
If  instead  of  falling  foul  of  the  ridiculous  person  with  a  satiric
rod,  to  make  him  writhe  and  shriek  aloud,  you  prefer  to  sting  him
under  a  semi-caress,  by  which  he  shall  in  his  anguish  be  rendered
dubious  whether  indeed  anything  has  hurt  him,  you  are  an  engine
of  Irony.
If  you  laugh  all  round  him,  tumble  him,  roll  him  about,  deal  him
a  smack,  and  drop  a  tear  on  him,  own  his  likeness  to  you  and  yours

u  2


292  GEORGE    MEREDITH

to  your  neighbour,  spare  him  as  little  as  you  shun,  pity  him  as  much
as  you  expose,  it  is  a  spirit  of  Humour  that  is  moving  you.
