Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 438

Edinburgh Journal, No. 438, by
Various

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Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 438 Volume 17, New Series,
May 22, 1852
Author: Various
Editor: Robert Chambers William Chambers
Release Date: July 17, 2006 [EBook #18853]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***

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CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS,
EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,'
'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
No. 438. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2d.

PHILOSOPHY OF LAUGHTER.
From the time of King Solomon downwards, laughter has been the
subject of pretty general abuse. Even the laughers themselves
sometimes vituperate the cachinnation they indulge in, and many of
them
----'laugh in such a sort, 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 the
gravity of adult life. Grown men, we say, have more to do than to laugh;
and the wiser sort of them leave such an unseemly contortion of the
muscles to babes and blockheads.
We have a suspicion that there is something wrong here--that the world
is mistaken not only in its reasonings, but its facts. To assign laughter
to an early period of life, is to go contrary to observation and
experience. There is not so grave an animal in this world as the human
baby. It will weep, when it has got the length of tears, by the pailful; it
will clench its fists, distort its face into a hideous expression of anguish,
and scream itself into convulsions. It has not yet come up to a laugh.
The little savage must be educated by circumstances, and tamed by the
contact of civilisation, before it rises to the greater functions of its
being. Nay, we have sometimes received the idea from its choked and
tuneless screams, that they were imperfect attempts at laughter. It feels
enjoyment as well as pain, 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 still only
rudimental: it is not genuine laughter. It expresses triumph, scorn,

passion--anything but a feeling of natural amusement. It is provoked by
misfortune, by bodily infirmities, by the writhings of agonised animals;
and it indicates either a sense of power or a selfish feeling of exemption
from suffering. The 'light-hearted laugh of children!' What a mistake!
Observe the gravity of their sports. They are masters or mistresses, with
the care of a family upon their hands; and they take especial delight in
correcting their children with severity. They are washer-women,
housemaids, cooks; soldiers, policemen, postmen; coach, horsemen,
and horses, by turns; and in all these characters they scour, sweep, fry,
fight, pursue, carry, whirl, ride, and are ridden, without changing a
muscle.
At the games of the young people there is much shouting, argument,
vituperation--but no laughter. A game is a serious business with a boy,
and he derives from it excitement, but no amusement. If he laughs at all,
it is at something quite distinct from the purpose of the sport: for
instance, when one of his comrades has his nose broken by the ball, or
when the feet of another make off from him on the ice, and he comes
down upon his back like a thunderbolt. On such occasions, the laugh of
a boy puts us in mind of the laugh of a hyæna: it is, in fact, the broken,
asthmatic roar of a beast of prey.
It would thus appear that the common charge brought against laughter,
of being something babyish, or childish, or boyish--something properly
appertaining to early life--is unfounded. But we of course must not be
understood to speak of what is technically called giggling, which
proceeds more from a looseness of the structures than from any
sensation of amusement. Many young persons are continually on the
giggle till their muscles strengthen; and indeed, when a company of
them are met together, the affection, aggravated by emulation, acquires
the loudness of laughter, when it may be likened, in Scripture phrase, to
the crackling of thorns. What we mean is a regular guffaw; that
explosion of high spirits, and the feeling of joyous excitement, which is
commonly written ha! ha! ha! This is