The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-02
PHILOSOPHY OF LAUGHING,
Optimism Sedative-Day of the Evolu-
ton.
C. Stanley Hall. in Ainslee,sA

&C. Stanley Hall, in Ainslee's)
Again a word about the philosophy Of
laughter. When the system is nerved
and is making conscious or unconscious
effort, the nerves that tighten the walls
of the blood vessels are hard at work,
and pressure in the arteries is great but
hearty laugh, as Bruckes interesting
experiments show, tends to bring the
blood over into the veins where there is
no pressure, relieves the arteries and
brings the exquisite sensations Of re-
taxation of rest. This is favored even by
draw in a full breath, throw back the
head, open the mouth and let the ex-
piration 'gurgle forth with sonorous in
termittence,' to quote a phrase from the
Philosophy of Laughter" and to do it
again and again, slowly throws off para
disc, where there was nothing but JOY
and sin and sorrow were unknown.
Once more, optimism Is one of the
supreme sedatives. There are men who
worry because the sun will some time
go out and the earth grow dead and
cold like the MOON or the coal measures
be exhausted; or the fertile areas of the
world dry up because of the denudation
of forests, but the philosophy of health
is that the best things have not hap
pened, that mans history has only been
begun, that, on the whole there has
been steady progress, that in virtue,
comfort knowledge, arts, religion and
nearly, if not quite, all the essentials of
the further development of man, faith
in human nature and belief in a future
better than the present is the conclusion
OF every philosophy of development and
evolution. 1t is our good fortune to live
in day of the evolution of evolution.
and this is giving new meaning to the
very word progress and makes us feel
that the world is rational and benificent
nd hot y1ay.o
purpose and effort fail we sink back into
everlasting arms. This is sanifying
point of view authorized now by both
science and religion, and is a good
psychic state to sleep on or in which
to enter the great rest.
ne idea of the Kingdom of God is
not yet realized 1t makes the optimistic
assumption that the human race as a
whole is ascendent, not descendent, and
thatsociety is in the making, not mort
bund. Again it is not content with the
less discouraging philosophy of history
that assumes that everything good and
great that can happen or be done in the
world of man has already occurred that
Eden has bloomed and faded, and If IT
come again will only because history
eternally repeats itself; that history is
made up of cycles in the sense of either
Plato or Herder; that periods of great
reform and advance can never present
anything of Importance that is new, but
| only undergo a palingenesis indefinitely
repeated. LotZe says that we must not
envy our more fortunate descendants in
the future, but only serve them, for God
loves man at all stages alike. Weiss In
terprets the Kingdom as meaning q
| worthy close Of the historic stadia, per-
haps sub specie aeternitatis; that the
| personality Of man is Gods greatest
work; that we should rejoice that Others.
who come after can stand upon our
shoulders, and that no ultimate good is
lost for the early workers in the historic
| field, to which we should subordinate
ourselves as we love to do for our
children &c. Stanley Hall in Anslee's.