"His great delight was to produce a succession of ludicrous images: these followed each other with a rapidity that scarcely left time to laugh; he himself laughing louder and with more enjoyment than any one. This electric contact of mirth came and went with the occasion; it cannot be repeated or reproduced. Anything would give occasion to it. For instance, having seen in the newspapers that Sir Æneas Mackintosh was come to town, he drew such a ludicrous caricature of Sir Æneas and Lady Dido, for the amusement of their namesake, that Sir James Mackintosh rolled on the floor in fits of laughter, and Sydney Smith, striding across him, exclaimed, "Ruat Justitia!" His powers of fun were at the same time united with the strongest, and most practical common sense. So that while he laughed away seriousness at one minute, he destroyed in the next some rooted prejudice which had braved for a thousand years the battle of reason, and the breeze of ridicule."
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Philosophers from EnglandAnglicans from the United KingdomPeople from LondonCritics from the United KingdomClergy from England
Original Language: English
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Sources
Lord John Russell, 'Preface', in Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore. Vol. VI, ed. Lord John Russell (1854), pp. xiii-xiv
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_Smith
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Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English clergyman, critic, philosopher and wit.
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