THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



happy without thought, scared without reason, 

 angry without volition, and act from spontaneous 

 impulse. I suppose that if man were not a reason- 

 able being he would never laugh, because it is the 

 perception of some sort of incongruity that makes 

 us laugh, though we may not be conscious of it. 



Animals never laugh, and probably never ex- 

 perience in any degree the emotion that makes us 

 laugh, because their minds do not perceive incon- 

 gruities. Such perception is an intellectual act that 

 is beyond them. The incongruous only strikes 

 them as something strange, and excites their sus- 

 picion or their fears. When one day I suddenly 

 appeared before my dog in a suit of khaki, a garb 

 in which he had never before seen me, did it excite 

 his mirth, as it did that of some of my neighbors? 

 On the contrary, it alarmed him; he hesitated a 

 moment, showing conflicting emotions, then edged 

 away suspiciously, and when I made a hostile dem- 

 onstration towards him, fled precipitately in a high 

 state of anger and excitement. Not till I spoke to 

 him in the old tone did he recover himself and ap- 

 proach me in a humiliated, apologetic way. 



Our anger, our joy, our sex love, our selfishness, 

 our cruelty, are of animal origin; but our sense of 

 the ludicrous, which is the basis of our wit and 

 humor, our hope, our faith, our feeling of reverence, 

 of altruism, of worship, are above the animal sphere, 

 as is the faculty of reason. They are of animal 

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