The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-04-06
Iiunl0r.

! bodiment of some special idiosyncrasy, or
it would become commonplace. There
have been modest humorists; nay, a hu-
morist is invariably modest in one sense,
for it is his cue to laugh at all vanity as at
all incorporated emotion. Conceit i'm
| plies that the world is worth taking Sc
| riously and ought to take me seriously.
! The most rooted conviction of the humOr-
list is that the world is farce-a melan-
choly farce, indeed, for otherwise there
would be no contradiction-bu farce
where the sublime must never be separated
| from its shadow, the ridiculous. His very
! egotism, in short, is itself contradiction
! 1t implies the two beliefs that his person
ality is intensely interesting and yet in
tensely absurd. 1t is the egotism of Lamb
or of Montague, who are always dwelling
fondly on their own tastes and associa-
tions and biographical "reminiscences, and
yet quietly railing at that fondneSs.
Modest vanity, humble self-assertiOn, dis
play of their own peculiarities as at once
! the most absorbing and the most rifing
of all topics Of thought, are Of the very
essence of the genuine humorist and yet
the most logged of political economists
| will be offended if you tell him he cannot
relish humor. Humor, therefore-the in
ference is surely irresistible-is morbid
secretion. If women and children do not
| appreciate humOr, it is because the best
| part of creation is the simplest in its tastes.
If Frenchmen have ceased to be humorous
since Radicals and Montaigne, it is be-
cause they are the keenest Of logiCans.
| If Germans are not humorous, it is be-
cause they love sentiment too heartily to
| laugh at it. If the Scotch are not humor-
Gus, it is because the Puritan conception
! of the world realizes the solcmnity of life,
and scorns all trihing with its awful reGli-
ties. AS humor is complex, the humor-
| ist is the product of conflicting forces; an
occasional freak of nature, to be valued
only by those who prefer oddity to beauty
"a hundred-limbed Hindoo idol 10 a
Greek statue. Had SOphocles, or Phidias,
or Raphael, or Dante, Or Milton, a sense
of humOr? Do you find humorin Thomas
a Kempts, or in the Hebrew prophets? a
loving apologist of the " Biglow Papers"
has tried TO defend his client from fool
ish charge of profanity by discovering
some touches Of humor with the AthanaS
ian Creed Everything is fair in apollo
gctiC writing, as in love and war. A pass
ing g,eam of irony may tinge some Scrip
tural denunciations of idolarous folly just
enough to excuse an apo!ogist driven to
his wits end for an argument; but there
is not enough to excuse anybody else. The
spirit Of humor-the hooking goblin who
sits at the elbow of some men to chill en-
thusasm, to prick all the bubbles of the
ideal with the needle point Of prosaic fact,
to give imagination the lie, like the soul
in Raleigh's verses, to tell eloquenCc that
it is bombast and poetry that tits unreal,
belongs TO the lower earth. His master or
Scrvant-t0r the familiar spirit is both
ruler and slave to the Wizard-is tcthered
to the ground, and can never soar with
out danger Of Il sudden collapse. And
therefore, like other spirits OF the earth,
he rules by our bascr instincts, and his
rule is but for time. How much of all
that passes for humorous is simply pro-
fame, or indecent, or brutal? Half the
humorous stories that pass current in the
world are unfit for publication. The
great humorists, from Rabelais to Swift
or Stcrne, are no longer quOtabIC in their
naked reality and rs the world becomes
| more decOrouS hUmor becomes tongue
tied and obsolete. OF the jests that sur
vive, half again owe their merit to theiI
inhumanity. Look at any of the current
stories of Douglas Jerrold, who passed
for a humOrist in these later days Every
recorded jest of his that have seen is a
gross incivility made palatable by pun
The substance of each phrase is, You are
a fool; the art consists in SO wrapping tho
insolence in play Of words that the hear
ers laugh, and the victim is deprived OF
sympathy. at was your father then.
who was not SO handsome?" is one Of
| Talleyrand's brilliant retorts to II man who
spoke Of his mothers beauty. What is
this but to say, "You are an ugly beast, "
and yet to evade the legitimate resent.
ment Of the sufferer ?-GorndtW KagoztHo.