Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916.
Vol. I. Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century
Adam Smith (1723–1790)
H
It is distinguished from moisture in general in this, that humours properly express the fluids of the body when, in a vitiated state, it would not be improper to say that the fluids of such a person’s body were full of humours.
The only fluids of the body which, in their natural and healthful state, are called humours, are those in the eye; we talk of the aqueous humour, the crystalline humour, without meaning anything that is morbid or diseased: yet, when we say in general, that such a person has got a humour in his eye, we understand it in the usual sense of a vitiated fluid.
As the temper of the mind is supposed to depend upon the state of the fluids in the body, humour has come to be synonymous with temper and disposition.
A person’s humour, however, is different from his disposition in this, that humour seems to be the disease of a disposition; it would be proper to say that persons of a serious temper or disposition of mind, were subject to melancholy humours; that those of a delicate and tender disposition, were subject to peevish humours.
Humour may be agreeable, or disagreeable; but it is still humour, something that is whimsical, capricious, and not to be depended upon: an ill-natured man may have fits of good humour, which seem to come upon him accidentally, without any regard to the common moral causes of happiness or misery.
A fit of cheerfulness constitutes the whole of good humour; and a man who has many such fits, is a good-humoured man: yet he may not be a good-natured; which is a character that supposes something more constant, equable, and uniform, than what was requisite to constitute good humour.
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 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.