NATURE, ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF HUMOR 153 



gests relationships between humor and freedom, which Penjon has so 

 well worked out, and between humor and aesthetics, long ago indicated 

 by Kant and recently by Lipps, but that mental activity so long inter- 

 preted as play should be credited to humor. I have already indicated 

 the survival value of humor for superstitions. It doubtless performs 

 a similar and larger function for play. Humor, then, is an end in 

 itself. It is disinterested in its object. This fact constitutes it first 

 differentium. 



I have already indicated that the sense of freedom is a constituent 

 element in the humor process. Its consideration is next in order. To 

 that end I submit some of the evidence as it had formed in my own 

 mind before meeting with Penjon's more extended account. The 

 family and guests are seated about the fireside enjoying the moments 

 of silence. The only light is that of the glowing embers. A smoulder- 

 ing bit of bark suddenly flashes up and a smile plays over the faces 

 of the silent group. The stroke of a sweet-toned clock, or a sneeze, 

 or the dropping and rolling of a sewing thimble or a ball of yarn pro- 

 duces under similar conditions the same effect. A group of boys are 

 seated on the bank of a bathing pond apparently gazing at the water's 

 glassy surface. Suddenly it is broken by a few drops of rain out of a 

 cloudless sky. The boys smile. The humor in such cases is weak and 

 simple. At such times consciousness is damped down to dreamy 

 monotonous processes under lax attention, and the mild humor results 

 from the sudden, delicate and harmless stimulus piercing its surface 

 tension, disrupting its feeble structure, and permitting it to flow in a 

 more free and spontaneous fashion. This simple type finds verification 

 writ large in every-day life. Objects and actions of little or no 

 inherent humor may become excruciatingly humorous under hard and 

 tense conditions. " Snickerin' at nothin' " in the schoolroom, giggling 

 before strangers and company, especially when at the table, the in- 

 creasing intensity of the annoying return waves of humor on solemn 

 occasions, are cases in point. Members of college glee clubs inform me 

 that they see humor in everything while on their vacation musical 

 tours. Darwin records that the German soldiers before the siege of 

 Paris, after strong excitement from exposure to extreme danger, were 

 particularly apt to burst into laughter at the smallest joke. I have 

 received abundant reliable evidence that the sufferers of the San Fran- 

 cisco earthquake, while enduring intense mental strain, burst into 

 laughter on the slightest provocation. This and like cases should not 

 be confounded with hysteria, which may occur unaccompanied by mental 

 strain. The history of humorous literature discloses the fact that it is 

 most prolific in those crises and changes in human affairs at which the 

 consciousness of freedom breaks out. The work of the cartoonist is 

 most vigorous and poignant when official tyranny and high-handed 

 abuses are laying heavy hands on the public. We recall the heroic 



