“Suppose MOROSE to be a Man naturally splenetic, and melancholy; is there any thing more offensive to one of such a DISPOSITION (where he uses the Word instead of Humour) than Noise and Clamour?  Let any Man that has the Spleen (and there are enough in England) be Judge.  We see common Examples of this HUMOUR in little every Day.  ’Tis ten to one, but three Parts in four of the Company you dine with, are discomposed, and started at the cutting of a Cork, or scratching of a Plate with a Knife; it is a Proportion of the same HUMOUR, that makes such, or any other Noise, offensive to the Person that hears it; for there are others who will not be disturbed at all by it.

At this Rate every Weakness of Nerves, or Particularity of Constitution, is HUMOUR.

It is true, he justly points out in another Place the different Sentiments, which ought to be adapted to different Characters in Comedy, according to their different Dispositions, or, as he phrases it, Humours:  As for Instance, he very rightly observes,
  That a Character of a splenetic and peevish HUMOUR, Should have
  a satirical WIT.  A jolly and sanguine HUMOUR should have a
  facetious WIT. 
—­But still this is no Description of what is well felt, and known, by the general Name of HUMOUR.

However, as what I have already quoted, may appear to be only his
looser Explanations, it will be necessary to deliver his more closed
and collected Sentiments upon this Subject.  These he gives in the
following Words,
  I should be unwilling to venture, even in a bare Description of
  Humour, much more to make a Definition of it; but now my Hand
  is in, I will tell you what serves me instead of either.  I take
  it to be, A singular and unavoidable Manner of doing or saying
  any thing, peculiar and natural to one Man only, by which his
  Speech and Actions are distinguished from those of other Men.” 
—­This Description is very little applicable to HUMOUR, but tolerably
well adapted to other Subjects.—­Thus, a Person, who is happy in a
particular Grace_, which accompanies all his Actions, may be said to
possess a singular and unavoidable Manner of doing or saying any
thing, peculiar and natural to him only, by which his Speech and
Actions are distinguished from those of other Men.  And the same
may be said of a Person of a peculiar Vivacity, Heaviness,
or Awkwardness.—­In short, this Description is suited to any
Particularity of a Person in general, instead of being adapted
to the Foibles and whimsical Oddities of Persons, which alone
constitute HUMOUR.