Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/362

 CURRAN. 351 some of his biographers, who profess to have been his frequent guests and companions, bear testimony to these traits of his character, few men have been less fortunate than Curran in the historians of his joculariana; for the instances they have given to their readers rarely pass mediocrity, and often descend to miserable puns; and indeed, some of them have enriched their collections from the counterfeit coinage of common rumour; and laid at the door of Mr. Curran many illegitimate bantlings, of which he has been most innocently dubbed the father. But such has been, time immemorial, the fate of celebrated wits in every age; and many a joke-merchant and dealer in table-talk, has ventured to foist off his own coinage, or his gleanings from the jest books, as the genuine offspring of Mr. Curran's fancy; well knowing that his name stamped even upon homely witticisms, makes them current for a dinner and a bottle at every hospitable table in Ireland, (at least) where a plausible fellow can make the tour of the country with little of any other coin in his possession. But we have no national bank for wit, and hence these forgeries increase and pass with impunity.' Though it may ill suit with the gravity of the biogra- pher, we have selected a few of the most feasible extant, amongst which some may be genuine, but we by no means vouch for the whole. It is but fair, however, to allow that the wit which sometimes glitters in conversation, is often difficult to extract per se. Much of its brilliancy frequently depends on the setting. Pick it from that, and it loses half its water, or becomes dim or opaque. With- out all the keepings of time, place, circumstance, and occa- sion, it is like one beautiful object detached from a fine picture, which took its chief force and effect from its com- bination, as an ingredient of the materia comica. Wit is to concersation as nutmeg to a cordial draught; a little gives a fine taste, but too much will nauseate; or, it is like the electric flash, which dazzles and astounds us in the dark, but would be invisible at noon-light. "Quickness in the conception, and ease in the delivery," are its chief qualities,