insomuch that at different times he appears as serious as a judge,
and as jocular as a merry-andrew. But, as he has a great deal of
the mother in his constitution, whatever mood he is in, he never
fails to make his company laugh.

But since there is an impostor abroad, who takes upon him the name
of this young gentleman, and would willingly pass for him in the
world; to the end that well-meaning persons may not be imposed upon
by cheats, I would desire my readers, when they meet with this
pretender, to look into his parentage, and to examine him strictly,
whether or no he be remotely allied to Truth, and lineally descended
from Good Sense; if not, they may conclude him a counterfeit. They
may likewise distinguish him by a loud and excessive laughter, in
which he seldom gets his company to join with him. For as True
Humour generally looks serious while everybody laughs about him,
False Humour is always laughing whilst everybody about him looks
serious. I shall only add, if he has not in him a mixture of both
parents--that is, if he would pass for the offspring of Wit without
Mirth, or Mirth without Wit, you may conclude him to be altogether
spurious and a cheat.

The impostor of whom I am speaking descends originally from
Falsehood, who was the mother of Nonsense, who was brought to bed of
a son called Phrensy, who married one of the daughters of Folly,
commonly known by the name of Laughter, on whom he begot that
monstrous infant of which I have been here speaking. I shall set
down at length the genealogical table of False Humour, and, at the
same time, place under it the genealogy of True Humour, that the
reader may at one view behold their different pedigrees and
relations:-