It is folly to say that this or that kind of humor is too good for the
public, that only a chosen few can relish it. The best humor that
we know of has been as eagerly received by the public as by the most
delicate connoisseur. There is hardly a man in England who can read but
will laugh at Falstaff and the humor of Joseph Andrews; and honest Mr.
Pickwick's story can be felt and loved by any person above the age of
six. Some may have a keener enjoyment of it than others, but all the
world can be merry over it, and is always ready to welcome it. The best
criterion of good humor is success, and what a share of this has Mr.
Cruikshank had! how many millions of mortals has he made happy! We have
heard very profound persons talk philosophically of the marvellous
and mysterious manner in which he has suited himself to the time--fait
vibrer la fibre populaire (as Napoleon boasted of himself), supplied a
peculiar want felt at a peculiar period, the simple secret of which
is, as we take it, that he, living amongst the public, has with them
a general wide-hearted sympathy, that he laughs at what they laugh at,
that he has a kindly spirit of enjoyment, with not a morsel of mysticism
in his composition; that he pities and loves the poor, and jokes at the
follies of the great, and that he addresses all in a perfectly sincere
and manly way. To be greatly successful as a professional humorist,
as in any other calling, a man must be quite honest, and show that his
heart is in his work. A bad preacher will get admiration and a
hearing with this point in his favor, where a man of three times his
acquirements will only find indifference and coldness. Is any man more
remarkable than our artist for telling the truth after his own manner?
Hogarth's honesty of purpose was as conspicuous in an earlier time,
and we fancy that Gilray would have been far more successful and more
powerful but for that unhappy bribe, which turned the whole course of
his humor into an unnatural channel. Cruikshank would not for any