The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1855-08-10
A Plea for Mfrtll.

A Plea for Mfrth.
In his address before the Phi Beta Kappa
Society of Harvard College, on Thursday last,
Henry Ward Beecher made characteristic
defence of Mirth and Cheerfulness, as the ont
burst of much slandered faculty of the mind
which should never be condemned, in the most
reverend society, in the family, in the exercise
even of religion. We make few extracts from
the sketch prepared for the Boston Atlas
1t is difficult to commend the quality of
cbeerfulness in sober discourse, on account of
the almost universal impression of its lowness,
if not wickedness. Men are disposed to view
sobriety as a necessary ingredient of religion,
and TO regard mirthfnlness as needless, or at
least to be sparingly INDUCED in. 1t is thus
compelled to be vagabond-a companion of
idleness-begging its bread from door to door.
Mirthfulness is an original faculty of the
lity to any other faculty with which it happens
its own. 1t is a cuckoo, and lays eggs in other
which have no outlet except through other
faculties a flavor not their own. There can
be no definition of it; every attempt yet has
failed
Mirthfulness has great power over the ex-
cited feelings and the angry irritation of men !;
it makes them more generous and more just
1t is more powerful, even with good men, than
reason or conscience. When an assembly of
men has become excited and irritable, they are
unjust impIacable, intolerant, and intolerable.
But let Jest fall, ik bomb, in their midst
exploding in shouts of laughter, and the clouds
lift, the tumult ceases. Mirthfulness is said to
be the devils weapon, but it has exercised the
devil a hundred times where he has made use
of it once. 1t is this which brings an orator
into direct and powerful sympathy with his
auditors; it is like controlling the servants in
the castle gate. 1t wings his rebuke, and
makes them patient under its infection. 1t is
more reasonable than reason, giving it clear
atmosphere for its energy, and 1t works more
powerfully for conscience than conscience it.
self.
The cares Of life are rendered less poignant
by mirthfulness. Care is human devil it is
like a dried, wrinkled apparition in the house
of fear. Sorrows are noblt and ennobling, but
care is an evil hag 1t has neither faith, nor
hone, nor love. 1t touches the path of misfor-
tune with blight and rests upon the sensitive
soul like mildew upon flowers. 1t curses pov-
erty with WEAKNESS and it stands forth mil
dewed and blasted. Sorrow hath slain its
thousands. It is the rust that hath furnished
and eaten the blade. Sorrows are like princes
that have dug wells in the dessert for those
that have come after them, surrounded by trees
and herbage-for true heart never suffers for
itself alone, but care throws gravel into the
machinery, and fills the air with dust. Cursed
he care, and let all the people say Amen!
lie next passed to the consideration of
mirthfulness in respect to religion. This is q
difficult subject to speak about on account OF
the defects in religion which can be remedi-
ed bv mirthfulness better than by any other
means. Insipid goodness is virtue stale it
lacks sparkle and life; it wants carbonic acid
gas. The leaven of eheerfulness would work
in such souls like the summer sun in the north
to-day, fields of ice; tomorrow violets.-
Men are apt to look upon religion as upon q
sombre fortress, bristling with guns, and they
think the way to become religious is to enlist
and Join the garrison. Our religious feelings
are touched with awe and veneration rather
than by love- We regard the Ministers as
gentlemen in black, whose professional duties
are correspondingly sombre. The only book
that inculcates chcerfulness in religious mat
tiers, is that best of all books-the Bible.
He who stands to look askance, and rebuke
this utterance of the whole soul, surely forgets
that the flowers praise God as much as the
Oedars of Lebanon-that the trees; and the
mighty winds, and the rolling thunders, and
silence, and darkness, are all audible to him.
If man has to try to be witty he shonld not
be, and will not be. He only asked that man
should have the liberty of saying what he has
in him. 1t was here, then, in the place where
q smile is counted curse, and laughter a
blasphemy, that he would assert the dignity of
mirthfulness, when it lays blushing flowers on
the altar of love, and yields to God the frag-
rance of the whole soul.