". . . Like a lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn.”

Sometimes it is in taking insignificant objects or events, and describing them in grandiloquent language, as though possessing surpassing importance. No better Irving. instance of this exists, so far as I know, than Irving in "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York," where he portrays the battle between the Dutch factions with all the pomp and circumstance of Homer's description of military operations before Troy.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WIT AND HUMOR.

A thought

without wit

Wit consists more in the thought and in the language. Humor is rather in the manner and form of expression. Sometimes these go together, at other times they exist widely apart. Occasionally humor enhances the wit, or possibly reveals it; for it is possible that a really witty thought may be so expressed that no one, or very few, will perceive it. Also a thought that has no wit may, by the very quaintness of its expression, become very ludicrous. This is done often by the tones of the voice, by particular emphasis, by facial expression, or by some gesture, or a glance of the eye. For Humor found the most part humor is found in spoken thought, though it is by no means wanting in written discourse. In the latter it consists wholly, as has been intimated, in peculiarity of expression.

may be made

ludicrous by

expression.

more in

spoken thought.

It has been asserted by some writers that the ludicrous always implies, in a greater or less degree, in the subjects. The ludicrous of the emotion, something akin to contempt for does not nec- the objects exciting it. It is claimed that, at ply contempt. least, there is in the mind of the former a sense

essarily im

of superiority, a looking down upon the object of it. I think this is an error, as almost any intelligent person would perceive who scans carefully his own state of mind on such occasions. It is pure mirth and jollity, and is consistent with the most radical good-will and kindliness. There are, no doubt, instances of the ludicrous where the object becomes contemptible at the same time that he becomes ludicrous, but there is no necessary connection between either the two emotions or the causes of them.

UTILITY OF THE LUDICROUS.

useless.

Many persons have the impression that this feeling of the ludicrous is either harmful, or, at least, altogether useless. But we cannot reasonably presume that Neither a characteristic so positive and so universally baneful nor bestowed is either necessarily harmful or utterly objectless. Like all our other characteristics, it is liable to be abused, and thus become of no good, but a Liable to positive evil. There are many reasons for think- abuse. ing it has to do with the economics of life, and, when kept within its designed limits, it has actual value.

It certainly furnishes relief and refreshment to many minds which otherwise might be hopelessly depressed. It gives buoyancy and cheerfulness, of which there

Benefits.

is none too much in the majority of our fellowmortals. It enlivens and invigorates the spirit often when nothing else will do so. "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." “He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast." Genuine wit and humor, acting within their appropriate spheres, are not only ornaments of character, but positive excellences. Even in their painful aspects

for they have these –

they have their uses. No one de

sires to be the object of ridicule, and this aversion to being laughed at is a powerful motive, where perhaps no other would be effectual in keeping a person from doing foolish and ridiculous things.

Sarcasm a

On the other hand, a sense of the ludicrous may be strong enough, in minds not balanced by suitable moral restraints and a charitable disposition, to be very mischievdangerous ous. Sarcasm may be sometimes useful. Occagift. sionally, when a person insists on making himself ridiculous, it is highly important that he should be made to realize his situation. But there is perhaps no power that a man has, which needs to be used with more scrupulous care and greater moderation. Again, there is in some persons a disposition to see all things, even the most serious, in a ludicrous light. Even sacred things are not spared, and sometimes, beyond the intention and consciousness of the subject, it leads to something like sacrilege, if not blasphemy. When carried to this extreme it is not only harmful to society, but the possessor of it suffers serious detriment in the higher and nobler elements of his character.

CHAPTER III.

THE EMOTIONS-Continued.

66

reckoned

among nec

Also ideas of

It will have been observed that in all the emotions so far considered, the idea of good or happiness has been a constant element. It will be so in not only the emotions yet to be considered, but in all the other divisions of the sensibilities. In so far as this is an idea, and Good to be not a mere feeling, Dr. Hopkins places it among the original and necessary ideas which arise from essary ideas. the very constitution of the mind itself. He also places the ideas of beauty and the ludicrous in the same category. He reckons them all as regu- beauty and the ludicrous. lative ideas," differing only from those of the reason, or regulative faculty, in that the latter are products of the Intellect, while these are the products of the Intellect combined with the Sensibility. For this power there is no name in which philosophers agree, and Dr. Hopkins only suggests that of the Affective Reason, The affective meaning by that a reason whose product has reason. the power of affecting us as a motive, which the ideas of pure reason have not."

the

This and some other characteristics separate these emotions from those hereafter to be considered. Of the latter we may first proceed to discuss what may be called:

Other emo

tions differing from the preceding.

ter of tem

THE SELF-REGARDING EMOTIONS.

Cheerfulness is one of these of which no one is ignorant. It is a pleasure not only to the subject of it, but to all Cheerfulness with whom he associates. It is partly a matter partly a mat- of temperament or of constitution. The health and general fortunes of life have sometimes much to do with it. Joy, delight, and gladness are expressions of this feeling, though they usually refer to the higher and more pronounced forms of it.

perament.

The antithesis of this is Dejection. persons who are chronically unhappy.

Dejection.

Most of us know
They carry about,

with them a sad countenance, and are habitually melancholy. They see nothing promising in any event or experience of life. If there is nothing of possible evil in the occurrences of the passing day or hour, they insist on interpreting something sinister into them. If the day is cloudy and dismal, they get almost the only gratification of their lives by reflecting that it is just what you might expect. If the day is fair and bright, they are sure it is a "weather-breeder." Their condition comes from a variety of causes-long-continued ill-health, misfortunes, constitutional proclivities, and hereditary tendencies.

Sorrow is a common emotion. This is not to be confounded with habitual dejection and depression. The most

Sorrow not

the same as

cheerful and light-hearted must experience the sorrows of life, and to these the emotion is often dejection. deeper than to others. Its occasions are the loss of friends, the evil conduct of those we love, possibly our own wrong-doing, and various others.

There is a group of emotions which we are next to con