New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-09
LAUGHTER.

LAUGHTER. es
The celebrated Sancho Panzian beati-
tude on the man who invented sleep
might, in our opinion, be probably
amended into Blessed is the man who
invented laughter" A genuine, hearty,
sensible laugh is a sign of physical, moral
OF mental health-sometimes of all three
united. Laughter is the bubbling up be-
yond the surface of that fountain of per-
petual youth which the adventurous Span
lard travelled so far to seek, yet uncon-
sciously carried with him all the while in
the depths of his own heart. No man
who can truly laugh is wholly lost; and
that most men can do so, at some time or
other, is an encouraging sign, showing
that the world is not SO bad place after
all, and that the destiny Of man is cared
for by one who delights in enjoyment a.
well as in virtue.
The various kinds of laughter are too
numerous to receive individual notice
now and here; but among them may be
mentioned the chi Is laugh, the sweetest
music that ever rippled upon mortal ears;
the girls laugh, tinkling, trilling, titillat-
ing; the ever ready cha! ha r of the fun
seeking youth; the affected she! he |" Of
the antiquated firt, and the hearty ''ho!
no ~ of the unsophisticated rustic. Be-
sides these may be reckoned the uproar-
ous laugh of over-feasted convivialists,
prepared by their "warm, champagne-y,
brandy-punch-y feeling" to enjoy any
thing having the semblance of humor;
the brutal cachination of coarse-minded
debauchees over an indecent joke; and
the ruminant laugh, trickling unexpect-
eddy from one of sluggish disabilities, long
after the jest which gave it birth has been
forgotten by the rest Of the COM
pany. This, by its very stupidity,
has an almost irresistibly comic effect,
and the laughter which it causes is of the
very best kind-the legitimate child of
drollery. Of the same sort is the merri-
ment which greets a ''bull," that back
handed species of wit which says the re-
verse of what it means with happy jocu-
larity. Very different are the emotions
produced by witnessing the sardonic grin,
q wretched distortion of .countenance pro-
duced by having the laugh turned against
one. This is sometimes called Laughing
ON the wrong side of the face"
The most exhilerating of all laughs is
undoubtedly the irrepressible burst of
merriment which springs from a keen
perception of the ludicrous united with
high animal spirits. This is the laugh
proper, and is so catching that few
healthy natures can listen to it long with
out joining in. Such laughter is also
hygienic in its tendency, and SO well was
this fact appreciated in olden times that
testers were kept by royalty and the no
bility for the express purpose of making
sport especially at meal times.
Everybody knows that convulsive mer-
riment cures the quinsy; but if its restora-
tive properties in cases Of confirmed dys-
pepsia were equally well known, there
would be fewer ''tonics" sold by the
druggists, and comicalities of all sorts
would be in high demand 1t is not only
in physical ailments, however, that
laughter is remedial agent; its effect on
the mind is healthful in the extreme,
whenever the sufferer can be induced to
resort to it. Fancy its application to a
case of blighte6 affections, or mortified
vanity. One side-splitting cachination
and the patient is half cured.
There is serious side to this merry
subject, and that is, do they laugh in
Heaven? Do the harmless incongruities
which meet the eyes of angelic beings
move them to merriment, or is heaven a
grave place? This question, however,
verges on the doctrinal one of the eternal
duration of future punishment, which
belongs more properly to the religious
press. For, it is very difficult to imagine
a world of benevolent beings supremely
happy and supremely merry (the angelic
nature, it is presumable, runs to extremes),
singing, rejoicing and laughing, while
millions of their fellow-creatures are
writhing in agony before their eyes, and
assaulting their ears with sounds ''as of
snarling and gnashing of teeth" No,
they surely can not laugh in heaven
under such circumstances and if they
do not, however extatic may be their de-
lights, we, on earth, enjoy one pleasure
of which the blest are deprived. But is it
SO? What says Swedenborg ON the SUBJ
ject?
REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
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