new to us, or if a presentation entirely new, and at
the same time unlike what we have seen before, the
two objects together are the framework of the emo-
tion of Surprise. When this unlikeness continues,
so that both objects are familiar but unlike, there is
Wonder. Astonishment is a great degree or inten-
sity of surprise. When the new and unlike object
is of such a kind in some of its features as to excite
grief or aversion, there is Dread or Terror. When
it is such as to excite joy or fondness, it is the object
of Mirth, or joyful surprise, and to this belongs the
phenomenon of laughing for joy. The comparison
of new and old, familiar and unfamiliar, is the basis
of the character of all these objects, and of the
emotions which they are said to excite. When the
two objects are familiar and old but incongruous in
juxtaposition, being at the same time not such as to
excite dread, there arises the simply laughable, the
comic, or absurd. But of this incongruity there are
two kinds; either the incongruity lies in the frame-
work, the formal relations of the two objects which
are brought forcibly together by some one or more
points of relation in which they are congruous or
by extraneous causes, or it lies in their emotional
element, the one being an object of admiration, es-
teem, or fondness, the other of the reverse. In the
former case, the contrast of thought or conception,
there arises the sense of the witty; in the latter, the
contrast of emotion, there arises the sense of the
humorous. The interest of wit lies solely in the in-
tellectual incongruity of the congruous, or congruity
of the incongruous, that is, in a play of intellect.
The interest of humour lies in the incongruity of
the emotions, serious feelings with gay, important

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