CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
PHILOSOPHY OF LAUGHTER.
MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI.
THE COUNTER-STROKE.
THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.
THE VEGETATION OF EUROPE.
A HALF-PENNYWORTH OF NAVIGATION.
A LONDON NEWSPAPER IN 1667.
A SCENE IN BOSTON.
THE TONGUE OF FIRE.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 438. New Series. | SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
PHILOSOPHY OF LAUGHTER.
From the time of King Solomon downwards, laughter has been the subjectof pretty general abuse. Even the laughers themselves sometimesvituperate the cachinnation they indulge in, and many of them
As if they mocked themselves, and scorned the spirit
That could be moved to laugh at anything.'
The general notion is, that laughter is childish, and unworthy thegravity of adult life. Grown men, we say, have more to do than tolaugh; and the wiser sort of them leave such an unseemly contortion ofthe muscles to babes and blockheads.
We have a suspicion that there is something wrong here—that the worldis mistaken not only in its reasonings, but its facts. To assignlaughter to an early period of life, is to go contrary to observationand experience. There is not so grave an animal in this world as thehuman baby. It will weep, when it has got the length of tears, by thepailful; it will clench its fists, distort its face into a hideousexpression of anguish, and scream itself into convulsions. It has notyet come up to a laugh. The little savage must be educated bycircumstances, and tamed by the contact of civilisation, before itrises to the greater functions of its being. Nay, we have sometimesreceived the idea from its choked and tuneless screams, that theywere imperfect attempts at laughter. It feels enjoyment as well aspain, but has only one way of expressing both.
Then, look at the baby when it has turned into a little boy or girl,and come up in some degree to the cachinnation. The laughter is stillonly rudimental: it is not genuine laughter. It expresses triumph,scorn, passion—anything but a feeling of natural amusement. It isprovoked by misfortune, by bodily infirmities, b