402 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and even simple interpretation. Our natural surprise at tlie dis- 

 covery is expressed in laughter. 



In the scenes which comedians present upon the stage, these 

 double interpretations and instantaneous transitions of feeling are 

 artfully provided for, and the success of the comedy is proportioned 

 to the skill and plausibility with which they are worked up. "Wlien 

 the play turns upon complicated situations and the mistakes and 

 blunders of the character, we first perceive the absurdity of the whole 

 as seen from our position; then instantly recognize that with the 

 actors the matter is a serious one, and that what they are doing is 

 correct from their point of view. The point of the joke lies in this 

 double perception. 



Some persons are slow in perceiving this point, and come in 

 with their laughter after all the others are done. Their minds work 

 more sluggishly, and they require more time to discover the duplex 

 element. 



Many conjurors' and circus tricks seem absurd and interest us 

 without exciting laughter, because only the unaccustomed side of 

 them is presented to us, and we fail to perceive wherein they have 

 a natural side; and we are more puzzled than amused by them. 



Laughter is favored by various circumstances and conditions — as 

 a good state of physical being, infancy and youth, exultation over 

 success, the buoyance we feel after having escaped danger, and cheer- 

 ful moods. Some writers have sought the causes of laughter among 

 these conditions; but we think they are only incidents, and simply 

 help it by promoting freedom and agility of the mind. Children, 

 who have no fixed habits and are vastly more susceptible to impres- 

 sions than their elders, perceive the different sides of objects and 

 their contrasts more speedily than they, and are more prone to 

 laughter. 



Mental dullness, physical trouble, disappointment, mistakes, 

 anxiety, or mental pain are restraints upon laughter, or prevent it. 

 Thus the more a thing appears to us at once unusual on one side 

 and familiar on the other, the greater is the tendency to laughter; 

 and the less pronounced the contrast the less we are amused at it. — 

 Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des 

 Deux Mondes. 



Sir Andrew Ramsay appears to be the first person who solved the 

 mystery of the authorship of the Vestiges of Creation. He wrote in 

 his diary, on the 14th of February, 1846 : " At h -me at night reading 

 the fifth edition of the Vestiges. Saw in it things I had told Chambers 

 in Edinburgh after the pubhcation of the fourth edition. He is the 

 author." 



