Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1899-06-22
FUN AS A MEDICINE.
Light Hearted oIookery Often Better Than
Severe Reproof.

heart doeth good ike a meulclne,
and it might safely be said that ii
very often does a great deal more.
We appear to be coming back to the
same opinion by way of reaction
from the grave and sententious
of our great-grandmoth-
ers. 4 very clever little book of
rhymes and pictures processes to be
"The Bad Child's Book of Beasts,
and comes nearer to Lear's wonder
full nonsense pictures and verses
than anything we have seen since,
though it is not quite so gleefuliy
extravagant and the humor is of
rather different kind.
But the idea of the book is evil
IDENTIFY that $50 called" bad child
needs nothing but a little fur to
make him "unnaturally good -
which means, we take it, that the
bad child and the good child are de-
viations from the happy mean to
much the same extent, and that the
bad child needs laughing into the
happy mean as much as the good
child needs laughing out of that Sc
we're and priggish moderation which
used to be held up to the earlier
generations of this century as
model for their initiation in such
books as "Sandford and Merton.
When the writer of the book of
Proverbs or the writer of the spe-
cial problem which he placed in his
selection spoke of a merry heart
doing good like a medicine, he prob
ably thought of the emancipation
which such a heart gains from the
misery of being self occupied-the
power it gains of looking out on the
world with hghtness of spirit all
its own. And that is, indeed, the
sense in which fun may be said to
be the best of all medicines. To
learn to laugh at the foibles of 9th
ers is harmless and even useful
enough if you do not laugh at them
i'll naturedly, but TO learn to laugh
at your own is a close approximation
to wisdom, if you laugh at them
with true insight into the ridiculous
side of those foibles. Of course fun
is no medicine for the graver sins
and moral distortions of human
life. for these are not subjects for
laughter, but rather for tears. But
there are many imperfections for
which light hearted mOckery IS a
far more effectual medicine than
any kind of moral scorn or reproot.
You cannot learn how foolish 1t Is
to play with edged tools half as well
from being worried to think 1t
wrong as you can from being shown
that it is in the ightest degree ridic-
ulous.
And you cannot learn that 1t IS
absurd and pedantio to believe IN
your own wisdom in any way half
so effective as you can from catch
ing yourself out as it were In that
affectation of superior discretion
which only gives you the air of
blinking and solemn emptiness that
the owl embodies in the rolling of
his darkness loving eyes. Books OF
nonsense are the best cures In the
world for that laughter of fools
which is like the cracking of thorns
under a pot and for that childish
assumption of virtue and sagacity
which so completely fails in conceal
ing the vanity from which 1t pro
ceeds. To endow the heart with
good reserve of innocent fun Is one
of the surest of preservatives against
real evil.
The child, or indeed the man, who
can laugh heartily and without
bitterness-bitter laughter Is not the
laughter of the hearts very soon
aware of the approach of any condl'
ton of mind which involves feel
ings inconsistent with that hearty
laughter and is put on his guard
by the sense of self reproach with
which those lighter moods attec'
him and make him feel that ht
has no right to them. That, we sus
! pect. is the deeper sense in which d
merry heart doeth good like a medi
cine" But, besides this, good fuI
certainly purges the spirit of al
those foibles which are very otteI
the cloaks of insincerity. The chllC
who imagines himself spirited be
cause he delights in provoking tht
creatures beneath him and in play
ing practical jokes on the compan
ions around him is better cured o.
his delusion by being shown how
! silly he looks to those who SEE
through him than by any othel
method.
And the child who is full of the sci
Importance of knowing rather mor'
and learning rather more rapidly
than his schoolfellOws il far mor'
easily laughed out of his concei
than he could ever be argued out o