IV. 

 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LAUGHTER, 



WHY ili) \\c smile when :i child puts on a man s hat? 

 or what induces us to laugh on reading that the 

 corpulent Gibbon was unable to rise from his knees after 

 making a tender declaration? Tlic usual reply to such 

 questions is, that laughter results from a perception of in 

 congruity. Kven were there not on this reply the obvious 

 criticism that laughter often occurs from extreme pleasure 

 or from mere vivacity, there would still remain the real 

 problem llo\v comes a sense of the incongruous to be 

 followed by thesi; peculiar bodily actions ? Some have al 

 leged that laughter is due to the pleasure of a relative self- 

 elevation, which we feel on seeing the humiliation of others. 

 But this theory, whatever portion of truth it may contain, 

 is, in the first place, open to the fatal objection, that there 

 arc various humiliations to others which produce in us any 

 thing but laughter ; and, in the second place, it does not 

 apply to the many instances in which no one s dignity ir: 

 implicated : as when we laugh at a good pun. Moreover, 

 like the other, it is merely a generalization of certain con 

 ditions to laughter ; and not an explanation of the odd 

 movements which occur under these conditions. Why, 

 when greatly delighted, or impressed with certain unex- 



