196 EXPRESSION OF JOY: Chap. VIII. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Joy, High Spieits, Love, Tender Feelings, 



Devotion. 



Laughter primarily the expression of joy — Ludicrous ideas 

 — Movements of the features during laughter — Nature 

 of the sound produced — The secretion of tears during 

 loud laughter — Gradation from loud laughter to g'entle 

 smiling — High spirits — The expression of love — Tender 

 feelings — Devotion. 



Joy, when intense, leads to various purposeless move- 

 ments — to dancing about, clapping the hands, stamping, 

 &c, and to loud laughter. Laughter seems primarily 

 to be the expression of mere joy or happiness. We 

 clearly see this in children at play, who are almost inces- 

 santly laughing. With young persons past childhood, 

 when they are in high spirits, there is always much 

 meaningless laughter. The laughter of the gods is de- 

 scribed bv Homer as " the exuberance of their celestial 

 joy after their daily banquet." A man smiles — and 

 smiling, as we shall see, graduates into laughter — at 

 meeting an old friend in the street, as he does at any 

 trifling pleasure, such as smelling a sweet perfume. 1 

 Laura Bridgman, from her blindness and deafness, could 

 not have acquired any expression through imitation, 

 yet when a letter from a beloved friend was communi- 

 cated to her by gesture-language, she " laughed and 



1 Herbert Spencer, ' Essays Scientific,' &c, 1858, p. 360. 



