WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 205 



bird sings for his own pleasure. But I 

 was pleased, too. His was an amiable en- 

 thusiasm, quite exempt, as it seemed, from 

 all that bitterness, which an exclusive pos- 

 session of the truth so commonly engenders. 

 He was greatly in earnest ; he knew he was 

 right ; but he could still see the comical side 

 of things ; he still had a sense of the ludi- 

 crous ; and in that lay his salvation. For a 

 sense of the ludicrous is the best of mental 

 antiseptics ; it, if anything, will keep our 

 perishable human nature sweet, and save 

 it from the madhouse. His discourse was 

 punctuated throughout with quiet laughter. 

 Thus, when he said, " / call it the late Re- 

 publican party," it was with a chuckle so 

 good-natured, so free from acidity and self- 

 conceit, that only a pretty stiff partisan 

 could have taken offense. Even his predic- 

 tions of impending national ruin were deliv- 

 ered with numberless merry quips and 

 twinkles. Many good Republicans and 

 good Democrats (the adjective is used in its 

 political sense) might have envied him his 

 sunny temper, joined, as it was, to a good 

 stock of native shrewdness. For something 

 in his eye made it plain that, with all his 



