The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-09
PHILOSOPHY OF LAUGHTER
1t Is Good for Both Mind and Body
and Refreshes the Spirit.
G. Stanley Hall in Ains1ee's.


g. Stanley Hall in Ainslee's.
Again, 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
a hearty laugh, as Brucke's 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
the attitude of hearty laugh. To draw
In a full breath throw back the head,
open the mouth and let the expiration
"gurgle forth with sonorous intermit-
tence,' to quote phrase from Philoso-
ply of Laughter, and to do it again and
again, slowly throws off the chains OF the
worlds great taskmaster and brings us
back, back toward the primeval paradise.
where there was nothing but joy, and sin
and sorrow were unknown.
Once more, optimism Is one OF the sue
preme 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 happened,
that mans history has only just begun,
that, OF the whole, there has been steady
progress, that in virtue, comfort, knoWl-
edge, arts, religion and nearly, II not
quite. all the essentials of the further
development of man, faith in human
nature and belief In 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
nj IN ha afxr
pozress and makes us feel that the world
is rational and benefcent to the core, and
that where conscious purpose and effort
fail we sink back into everlasting arms.
This is sensdfying point OF view au-
thorized now by both science and re-"
ligion, and is a good psychic state to
sleep on or in which to enter the great
rest.
The idea OF the Kingdom Of God is not
vet realized It makes the optimistic
assumption that the human. race as q
whole is ascendant, not descendent, and
that society is in the making, not mort-
bund. Again it is not content with tho
less discouraging philosophy OF history
that assumes that everything good and
great that can happen or be done In the
world Of men has already occurred, that
Eden has bloomed and faded and II IL
comes again will be 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 palingenesis indefinitely
repeated. Lotze says that we must not
envy our more fortunate descendants IN
the future, but only serve them, for GOO
loves man at all stages alike. Weiss IN
terprets the Kingdom. as meaning
worthy close of the historic stadis, per-
haps sub specie aeternitatis; that the per-
sonality OF man is Gods greatest worki
that we should rejoice that others. who
come after, can stand upon our shoulders
and that no ultimate good is lost tor ths
early workers IN the historic neio, 90
which we should subordinate ourselves "a
we love to do tor our children