Although there have been only a few great sati-
rists, there are a great many people with satiric
temperaments. Swift, Voltaire, Cervantes, Gogol,
Juvenal, Heine appear at rare intervals, but mil-
lions of men and women who never create satire
on paper or stage are, in attitude and personality,
satirists. Many of them in the ordinary activities of
their lives see things from the perspective of satiric
criticism or comic distortion; lacking the technical
skill to make written literature out of their re-
actions, they express themselves orally instead.
Their colleagues regard them as either humorists
or "grouches." By inclination, by attitude, and by
behavior there are far more humorists and satirists
than are listed in histories of literature, and most
large social groups contain easily recognizable
amateur clowns.

The number of enduring contributions to
satiric literature is small. Aldous Huxley reduced
to absurdity many pretenses of modern science

There are far more humorists
and satirists than are listed
in histories of literature.

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