Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1869-09-08
Laughter and Tears.


fact, is singular phenomenon.
Tears and laughter are part of the
universal language of human kind
the language of looks. Since Babel,
men, dispersed over the face OF the
world do not understand one another's
speech. But this one inarticulatc Ian
guage remains ineligible to all man
kind il requires no interpreter, il is
legible to those to whom even "tho
three RS" are still mystery; infants
newly-born seem to bring some under
standing of it with them into the
world il may be read by black
man in the face of a white it would
have beeen apprehended in Robinson
Crusoe, by his man Friday on the
desert Island; it is even in some de-
gree legible by marvellous instinct
BY the lower animals in the face OF
man. For strong man can flash
spirit-quclling command out of the
bodily windows of his soul, his eyes,
into the halfwaking "spirit of beast"
A Borrow can thereby assert his au-
thority "by right divine" over an en-
ragged dog.
1t is touching proof Of that deep,
underlying unity, which, amidst all
their infinite differences, binds together
10 the deeper regions of their being all
the far-separated races and families of
Adams children, that all men do, in
this way, understand one another's
looks. If Hand oman unknown island,
whose inhabitants speak a language,
in the ordinary sense of that word,
quite unintellgible to me, and yet SEQ
there human face, whatever be its
color or shape, lighted with smile,
or trembling into tears, my heart, ifii
is not dead within me, will answer 10
what call its expression, though !
cannot in the least tell how | gather
any such knowledge from that sight.
We may plead, therefore, for the Geep
interest OF these two phenomenas, tears
and laughter, on this ground among
others, that they are part Of the uni
versal and distinctive characteristics
of our brother men, of every race and
cline.
Laughter is visible. principally, in
that mystic border-land between mat.
ter and spirit "the human face d.
vine"
How it does so, who shall say ? For
what is in a face Ii is region but
few square inches in extent and
yet this is all the Instrument, or much
the principal one, with which, in the
mysterious processes of nature all the
varieties Of thought, feeling and emo
tion of which we become aware in
looking at another human being, are
in some way or another effectively
conveyed TO us. Its component parts
have, it is true, a marvellous power OF
ceaseless, most subtle Increment "a
most important attribute. "That,"
says Lord Bacon Essay OF Beauiy,)
sis the best part of beauty, which a
picture cannot express; no, nor the
first sight of the life, decent, q. G. be-
coming) and gracious motion" Still,
it is through this apparently simple
instrument, face, that, in some way
or other, thought, feeling, emotion,
are expressed, TO degree really mar
velous. And who knows not the actual
light (is it spiritual or is it physical in
its essence I'VE cannot say that may
flash into our souls from the lines of
flowing beauty round the mouth, the
dancing CLEANS in the lengthening
eyes, the innumerable twinklings and
beamings of tho countenance, when it
is really IaughingG
Still, il is not only in the face, or
even in the domain of sight, that the
spiritual condition which causes laugh
teris Ierceptible in nothers The blind,
VIII never looked upon face, yet
know OF laughter in others through
that other bodily doorway into tho
presence-chamber of the soul, the ear;
and the feelings called up in the soul
ofthe blind By pealsoi laughter pedis,
as,of some gladsome and brilliant bolls
in, the spirit worldly must be much
the same as those stirred in those dc.
prived of hearing, by the sight of a
laughing face, and Of the shaking sides
the arms il may be, flung iuto the
air, the head thrown back, or the
hands enthusiastically rubbed togeth-
er-of one who is undergoing that
strange seizure rightly called it,
for true ft, or physical seizure il is
of laughter. Whatever it may be
in its inmost nature and central spring
in the soul, its effect is general over
the whole body. Probably there is
not the remotest corner, or little inle.
of the inmate blood. vessels (life.ves-
sels)of the body, that does not feel
sope wavelet from that great convul.
sion shaking the central man. The
blood moves more lively-probably
its chemical, electric, or vital condition
is distinctly modi6ed-it conveys q
different impression to all the organs
of the body MS il visits them on that
particular mystic journey when the
man is laughing, from what il does at
other times. Aud so, we doubt not,
a good laugh may lengtben mans
life, conveying distinct stimulus to
the vital forces. And the time may
come, when physicians, attending
more closely than,at present, unforiu-
natcly, they are apt 20 do, TO the in
Vulnerable subtle influences which the
soul oxerts upon its tenement of clay,
shall prescribe TO torpid patient "so
many peals Of laughter, to be under.
gone at such aud such a time" Just as
they now do that far more objectiona.
BILE prescription, pill, or an electric
or galvanic shock and shall study
the best and most effective method OF
producing the required effect in each
patient Health.
The New York Citizen says: At
one of our fashionable churches. where