THE SENSE OF HUMOR.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2556, 16 March 1877, Page 3

THE SENSE OF HUMOR.

Consciousness of guilt, or of fatal defects, is a thing which people keep to themselves, shut up in the most secret chamber of the heart. Confessions are usually made in vague general terms, and not eyen Rousseau dared publicly. to state, what he must sometimes -have felt, that his worst fault was being a morbid humbug*. Thus it is not known what the sensations of a man may be when he admits to himself that he has no sense of humor. No doubt the awful suspicion of himself is first suggested by something from without, and grows very slowly into shape. We see the fear.of it in people who are obviously hurt when their neighbours enjoy a form of humor--American humor, for instance : —that is caviare to themselves. We may fancy a man trying on a joke, as a person who himself of cowardice may brave some needless danger. After many experiences the dread truth is revealed to him (hat he has not, and never can have,

the instinct of fun. After this it is a melancholy study to watch his conduct among mirthful men. He puts on an air of solemn gravity andrebuk<\ x\-V>'; Itides his weakness, as he fanr!< s. or iie meanly simulates a simper. H;s d lli.nily is to he in lime with ihe other laughers, nnd not lo Ijetray himself !>y a : premature !, rrin, uor to look blank in the terrible presence of the point-of the joke: S ro.i linger of his laughing out loud, hours afterwards, at the capitalthiug.which he has been brooding over in mental anguish, i That is the part of the honest fellow who has a sense of humor as strong as that of any wit, but those intellectual machinery woiks slowly, but surely. ;The rare human being whose conscience convicts him of the lack of this sense is only too happy when the general mirth is over. Sufficient for the moment is the joke thereof; another may be at hand, and he painfully watches for a cue from his neighbors.— Saturdayßeview.