A Time to Laugh

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 38, 3 August 1870, Page 7

A Time to Laugh

It is hard to believe that a good laugher is either cruel or deceitful. A smile, a ’ sniff, a short and, as it were, monosyllabic and staccato laugh, may all be consistent with gqile. But deep, melodious, rolling laughter that rises and falls like a wave—can that belong to an artful nature 1 Possibly it may. Wo have never known but a single instance in which a good, sweet, and wholesome laugher was insincere ; and in this case it was, we suspect, more a habit contracted in society than a restraint of disposition. There can be silly laughter, and much ot it; but there is fully as much silly sobriety. A boy that laughs at “ nothing” shows a kind of exuberance of nature; but a man who. will not laugh upon a just cause manifests an exceediugly lean and, barren nature. It is what musicians call ciphering —as when one touches a key on the organ and the pipe does not sound. Mirth and merriment bear a bad name among sober folks, hut so do sober people among the merry. One because his opposite dues, and the other because he does nut, laugh. We take sides with—well, for the time being, we take sides with the fraternity of the laugh. If there be sin it must inhere in the manner ot doing it, and not in the quality of mirth. That it is the inspiration of the mind, and not a mere muscular and animal chuckle, is shewn by the fact that animals below men do not laugh. They are not highly enough endowed. They have no soul, no moral sentiment, little complexity of mind, out of which arise those curious.junctures, or crossings of ideas, which awaken laughter. An animal is not ■immortal’ we are told, and cannot laugh. A man is immortal, and can laugh. As long as the desk predominates, laughing is impossible ; add a soul, and the creature begins to laugh. It is a superior attribute. We are displeased with the low and unworthy functions sometimes apologetically assigned to it. It is good for digestion, it is said ; it is moderte exercise—as if, like a sneeze, it is a purely physical phenomenon. But the laugh is horn of a thought; the sneeze of only a tickle. Sneezing is an affection of the nose and parts adjacent; but laughter is the child of the soul. / It springs from the immortal part, and the whole body is hut an organ of impression. Every true laugher knows that when he has laughed till he coughs, till tears run down his cheeks, till his sides ache with shaking, till he is deaf—in short, till the body has exhausted all its means of expressing de-light—-that the idea which caused all this tumult has not exhausted itself, nor has it been satisfied with the inarticulate expression of laughter, : It is the soul that laughs first and most, and the body but reverberates the echoes. Laughing is good for digestion. But this is the least and lowest of its good offices. It is a soul-cleanser. It cannot endure shame. It loves goodhumoured ways among the thoughts ; and when conceits have slowly turned to dei ceits, and partial and unfair notions are choking up tho soul, and unworthy feelings are depositing soot along the soul’s passages, a genuine laugh is like a fire in a foul chimney. In boyhood a sound whipping has a wonderfully stirring effect. We never enjoyed it, but after it was all over, we took hold of life with new zest. It was a transient cuticular regeneration; a rousin'* piece of news, the ecstacy of a great joy; or the shock of an excessive sorrow, giving to the mind a lift upward; and if one has the stamina of good health, these revolutions and shakings prove to be admirable alteratives. But they are not good for daily use. The mind needs to be roused | and shaken every day without too severe a blow. Laughter does it. It topples down a man’s sh am dignity. It makes his foolish pride give way, at least for the moment. It sweeps away all pretences, and make-believes, and pitiful social distinctions. In an unexpected uproar of laughter at genuine wit or humour, every man in the room is on a level, and a dash of goodfellowship goes round. Even obstinacy, that old curmudgeon of the soul, yields a little. Sobriety, too, is a good thing. It is the firm ground tliromdi which laughter runs like a brook in a summer meadow. But that is the best sobriety : that is like a bank, boldin'* in the musical stream. Sobriety, just a little removed from the edge of laughter, is wholesome. But tho dull and trite sobriety of passionless life has no business to assume airs of superiority over virtuous mirth. Seldom is mirth deceitful. But sobrieiy is a mask worn by hypocrisy and pretence. Sobriety is employed all the world over to make witless men seem wise • to cover worldliness with the guise of virtue ; to simulate piety; and to garnish a worthless life with the aspect of respectability. Sobriety represents the precious virtues as the bills of solvent banks represent the precious metals; but in both cases, when the bank suspends payment, the bills still circulate. Commend me to an honest man, that looks you straight in the eyes, that dare contradict you, that laughs with you ; but who, when occasion comes, is silent and sober, and holds your palm hard with his right hand, and hrushe s a tear Com his eyes with tho other.—jq ov , Henry Ward Beecher.