New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-12-01
THE COMIC.
From The Dial.
BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

IT is a nail of pain and pleasure, said Plato,
which fasteEs the body to the mind. The way
of life is a line between the regions of tragedy
and comedy l find few books SO entertaining
as the wistful human history written out in the
faces of any collection Of men at church or
courthouse. The silent assembly thus talks
very loud The sailor carries on his face the tan
of tropic suns, and the record of rough weather;
the old farmer teshfes Of stone walls, rough
woodots, the meadows and the new barn The
Doctors head is fragrant gallipot of virtues
The carpenter still measures feet and inches with
his eye, and the licensed landlord mixes liquors
in motionless puntomime. What good bargains
glimmer on the merchants aspect. Andif beauty,
softness, and faith, in female lorms have their
own influence, vices even, in slight degree, are
thought to improve the expression. Malice and
scorn add to beauty You shall see eyes set too
near, and limited faces, faces Of one marked and
invariable character. How the busy fancy In
quires into their biography and relations! They
pique, but must tire Compared with UNI
yersal faces countenances of general human
type, which pique less, they look less safe. In
such groups the observer does not think of heroes
and sages. In the slcntest meeting, the eye reads
the plain prose Of life, tmidty, caution, appetite,
ignorance, old houses, musty savorS, stationary,
Yetrograde faculties puttering round Ito use the
country phrase) in paltry routlnes from January
to December.
These are the precincts of comedy and farce
And taste for fun is all but universal in our spe-
ces, which is the only joke in nature. The rocks,
the plants the beasts, the BIRDS neither do any,
thing ridiculous, nor betray a perception of any
thing absurd done in their presence. And as the
lower nature does not jest, neither does the high
est. Ihe Reason pronounces its omniscient yea
and nay, but NEEDLES never with degrees or frac-
tons, and 1t is in comparing fractions with essen
tlal integers or whoes, that laughter begins.
Aristote's definition of the ridiculous is, " what
IS out Of time and place, without dangern If
there be pain and danger, it becomes tragic; if
not, comic. confess, this definition, though by
an admirable detincr, does not satisfy me- docs
not say all We know. The essence of all Jokes,
OF all comedy, seems to be halfness non.per.
torrance OF what is pretended to be performed.
at the same time that one Is giving loud pledges
Of performance. The banking of the intelect.
the frustrated expectation the break of continuity
In the intellect, is what we call comedy; and It
announces ALPHABETICALLY in the pleasan. spasms
we call Laughter.
With the triiing exception OF the stratagems
OF a few beasts and BIRDS there is no seeming,
no haliness In nature, until the appearance of man.
Unconscious creatures do the whole will of Wis
dom. An oak or chestnut undertakes no tunc.
QUA IL CASSClS, II luCIS De pQeQQiISll3
IN botany which we call abortions, the abortion
is also function of nature, and assumes to the
intellect the like completeness with the farther
function, to which in different circumstances it
had attained The same thing holds true of the
animals. Their activity is marked by unerrins
good sense. But man, through his access to
Reason, is capable of the perception of whole
and part Reason is the Whole, and whatso
ever is not that, is part. The whole of nature
is agreeable to the whole of thought, or TO the
Reason; but separate any part OF nature, and
attempt to lock at it as whole by itself, and the
feeling Of the ridiculous begins. The perpetual
game OF Humor is TO look with conssderate good
nature at every object in existence asoot, as
man might look at mouse, comparing 1t with
the eternal Whole; enjoying the hguTe which
each seEsatis6ed particular creatures cuts In the
unrespecGng All, and dismissing it with beni.
son. Separate any object, as g particular bodily
man, horse, flour-barrcl, an umbrella from
the connection of things, and contemplate it
alone, standing there in absolute nature, it be-
comes at once comic; no useful, no respectable
qualities can rescue it from the ludicrou..