The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-10-13
LAUGHTER.
Modern Arg ;.

Modern Arg.
 The illusive character of language never shows i;sel: so plainly as when We make an effort to describe some com non phenomena. Take, for instance. laughter. Everybody, or nearly every body laughs. and yet. 10 give an exact detinition of laughter would puzzle thousands of intelligent people. Web ser says that laughter IS convulslve rlerriment. an expression ot m,r,h pecu- lar to man. consisting la peculiar noise and connsuratoa oi feature with a shaking of the sides and expulsion of trea,h" Would that give perfect idea ef wha; laug hter Is. 70 some heather who lad laughed, and had never seen any one laugh7 if it would not. would he De enlightened by Beatties statement as 70 the cause of laughter: An uncom- non mixture of relation and contrariety. exhibited, or supposed to be united. Tn he same assembage." If the heather did no, grasp this thought perhaps he would see more clearly after hearing the slme authors amplincatlon of the idea. Laughter" he says, arises from the new of two or more lneongruous parts IS circumstances. considered or united in one complex object or assemblage, or as acquiring a sorl oi mutual relation from the peculiar manner in which the mind takes notice of them. Now. surely. our hea.hen will knox how 10 laugh. What Not yet. Then let old philosopher Hobbes put him on the right road :: Laughter is sudden glory. arising from | sudden conception ot some eininency in ourselves. by comparison with the uni iormity of others. or with our own, for mally.'
 Laughter, lis the poor mas plaster
 Covering up each sad disaster.
 Laughing. he iorgets h:s troubles,
 Which though real. seem but hlbbles.
 Laughter, ms a seal of Nature.
 Laughter whether .oni or mate,
 Tells the human kind from oruse.
 Laughter It's hopes lvIus oice,
 Bidding us 10 make a choice,
 And 10 cuil from the thorny boxers.
 Leaving thorns and taking flowers.
 We have ample testimony that laugh ter is good. Douglas lerrold speaks of glorious laughter, who tzketh blood taking melancholy by the nose and maketh it grin in spite q itselk" Henry Giles advises us to laugh and grow fat "lfysu should grow exorbitantly fat by laughing, laughing still will keep you in healthy motion" An anonymous writer says that "whe,her laughter discovers the gums of infancy or age, the grinders of folly, or the pearls of beauty whether i, racks the sides or delorms the ooun- ,enance of vulgarity, or deep lines the visage; or mois,ens the eye of refine ment-in all its phases, and on all faces, contorting. relaxing. overwhelming, con- yulsing, throwing the human form into happy shaking and quaking of idiocy. and turning the human countenance into something appropriate to Billy Buttons transformation, under every circumstance and everywhere laugh IS a glorious thing" The physician tells us of ,he physlca, benefi,s of laughing. There is not the reno,es, corner or little inlet of the minute blood-vessels of the human body that does no, feel some wavelet iron, the convulsion ooc ssioned by good hearty laughter. The life principle, or ,he central man, IS shaken 10 it's inner most depths, sending new tides of life and strength to the surface, thus maieri- ally tending to insure good health to the persons who indulge therein. The blood moves more readily and conveys differ ent impression to all the organs of the body. as is visits them on tha, particular mystic tourney when the man IS laugh ing, from what 1t does at other times. For this reason every good, hearty laugh in which a person indulges, tends to lengthen his life, convsying as it does, new and distinct stimulus to the vital forces. Doubtless the time will come when phy,icians, oonoeding more im- porance than they no~ to :c sAe in Auence of the mind upon the vital forces of the body, will make their prescriptions more with references to the mind and Less to drugs for the body, and will, in 90 doing, find the hesa and most effective method of producing the required elect upon the patient But one English writer that VIC can call to mind has spoken cynically of laughter. His opinion of the origin of laughter IS that it resulted from tke practice of tickling babies. which practice has made it confirmed habit