What is Humour, Wit and the Comic?

Humour is basically an intellectual element. But intellect is here found associated with feeling, with sensitiveness . It has a mellowed tone and affects equally mind and heart.  In fact,  in humour, sentiments and intellect are unified.  It is as much ' thinking in fun as feeling earnest' and realises the twofold  effect of comedy to give entertainment and to provoke thought. It makes the Comic Muse, as it were, good natured and magnanimous, and comedy turns into an affair of fancy as well as feeling. It provides the pure laughter of the comic proper with a serious undertone. 

Wit is a purely intellectual exercise, an intellectual triumph,  as it were. It causes laughter, Just as humour does. But the laughter that results from the play of wit id spectacular and superficial, while there is something deep and dignified in the laughter coming from humour. The delight that wit gives , evolves out of the combination of fancy and words,  but humour,  well defined as thinking in fun while feeling in earnest, delight as well as deepens the feeling of life.

Wit, in fact,  has much intellectual flash,  but no emotional depth. Of course, it is a quite effective and diverting force in stirring the comic. It id found to add much to the comic spirit and steers remarkably the element of laughter which is an essential requisite in the comic world. 

The comic refers to the sense of laughter as well as fun in which humour and wit are active participants. It is the spontaneous laughter without causing any harm or pain that constitutes the essence of the comic spirit.  Humour and wit,  well harmonised and applied, add much to this.