I cannot account for my being pleased with these
incidents, any other way, than by saying they are truly
ridiculous in their own nature, and serve to heighten the humour
in the farce of life, which I am determined to enjoy as long as I
can.
Those follies, that move my uncle's spleen, excite my laughter.
He is as tender as a man without a skin; who cannot bear the
slightest touch without flinching. What tickles another would
give him torment; and yet he has what we may call lucid
intervals, when he is remarkably facetious -- Indeed, I never knew
a hypochondriac so apt to be infected with good-humour. He is the
most risible misanthrope I ever met with. A lucky joke, or any
ludicrous incident, will set him a-laughing immoderately, even in
one of his most gloomy paroxysms; and, when the laugh is over, he
will curse his own imbecility. In conversing with strangers, he
betrays no marks of disquiet -- He is splenetic with his familiars
only; and not even with them, while they keep his attention
employed; but when his spirits are not exerted externally, they
seem to recoil and prey upon himself -- He has renounced the waters
with execration; but he begins to find a more efficacious, and,
certainly, a much more palatable remedy in the pleasures of
society.
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