New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-12-30

The Macmillan Company.
The publication of the present essay
leaves no important work of Professor
Bergson untranslated, so that 1t marks
the highest reach of the inundation TO
which we have been treated in recent
months. II the Eruption of Bergsonian
references into the English philosophical
indexes has seemed a brisk performance,
we arc to remind ourselves that in
France the authors renown has been ac-
quired steadily through n period OF
twenty years, and that his contributions
beginning with the "Essai sur les Don
noes Imm6diates de In Conscience" and
including "Matiere ct Memoire," lie
Rire" and "Levolution Creatrice"-
have been issued at only modest in
tervals. The last named volume. already
reviewed in this place, sets forth the
substance Of the masters doctrine. 1t
shows him attempting, If not achieving,
the discontinue of the Hegelian abso-
lutte. eliminating. If not disappearing,
the intellect, but at the same time chal-
longing the imagination with an account
of reality as the creative force eternally
experimenting with modes of manifesto
ton in matter. A theme so high may
we'll evoke the "orchestration" of style
discovered and admired by NJ. Bergson's
readers, but the wayfaring man can find
co al pleasure in turning to the simpler
essay. with its so penetrating examina-
ton of the nature Of mirth. Knowing
how soon our emotions are palsied in the
presence Of that mild yet persistent
mania for analysis 10 which men give
the name of philosophy, we may be
thankful that in our authors hands
laughter does not at once become a stern
matter.
On the way toward finding a common
ground between the srimace of merry
andrew, play upon words an equivo-
cal situation in burlesque, or scene Of
high comedy, NJ. Bergson calls attention
10 the point that the comic does not eX-
ist outside the pale Of what is strictly
human. Animals and things are laugh
able only when you read into them some
human resemblance. Then. too the
comic demands certain disinterested-
ness in the spectator; the appeal Is TO
intelligence when feeling is absent, yet
so an intelligence in touch with other
minds. real or imaginary. A man was
once asked after church why he had not
wept under a sermon when everybody
else was shedding tears. He explained:
"I don't belong to the parish" True as
the excuse for teaTlessness might be,
laughter is still more impossible without
a degree Of social completely. These
conditions for the comic arc, so far, sub
jective. 1t is still necessary to find out
what II IS. in forms and movements, in
situations and in the play Of words, and
in human character, that makes the ma
terial Of mirth. The common element in
the things that provoke hilarity will turn
out 10 be an inelasticty that opposes
itself to the spontaneous activity of life.
Here NJ. BergsOn brings TO bear on
problem in aesthetics his characteristic
thesis that the fundamental law of lie
Is the complete negatiOn Of repetition.
To his mind it is better to accept the
make the suppleness of living reality
adapt itself to our metaphysical systems.
The intellectualist obduracy was eXem-
plified TO the extreme by the Eleatic
philosophers, concerning whom, in his
l. magnum opus, Professor Bergson has
Nj remarked: Rather than lay blame on
~ the attitude of thought and language
toward the course Of things, they pre-
ferred TO pronounce the course of things
itself to be wrong"
Taking as a lett motif in the discussion
the notion Of rigidity, automatism, abb
sent-mindedness and unsociabiity as
being all ineXtricably entWined, and all
constituting ingredients Of the comic we
get the opportunity, under our authors
cheerful guidance. Of testing this defer
entially proposed definition. Let the hui
man body in some way resemble a ma
chine, as when your dignifed neighbor
comes a cropper in the street through
opposing rigldity Of muscles to a cir
cumstance that called for elasticity, and
you find that the reason OF the mans
fall is the same as that of your laughter.
What is Observation-Disclosures, that prolific
source Of merriment TO the spectator, but
a lack Of elasticity of senses or of intelli-
gence, which brings it to pass that we
continue to see what is no longer visible,
70 hear what is no longer audible, to say
what is no longer TO the point? What is
an unconsciously comic physiognomy but
a surrender TO fiXity? When we speak
Of a face as having expression, we mean
expression that is stable, but which we
conjecture to be mobile. 1t maintains,
IN the midst Of it's firmness, certain in
decision in which are obscurely por-
trayed all possible shades OF the state Of
mind II expresses, just as the sunny
promise Of a warm day manifests itself
in the haze of spring morning. But a
comic expression Of the face is one that
promises nothing more than It gives.
One could say that the persons whole
moral life had crystallized into this par
ticular cast of features. The art Of the
caricaturist consists in detecting and
magnifying some impending. unyielding
bias OF the features. He makes his
models grimace as they would do them
selves If they went TO the end OF their
tether. The world is full Of examples OF
the attempt to incrust something me
chanical upon the living, ingenious
enough at times, as when the lady, in
vited by the astronomer TO see an eclipse
of the moon, and arriving too late. ex-
claimed: IN. de Csssini, / know, Will
have the goodness TO begin all over