252 



1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ethereal Vita Nuova; and, still 

 again, Chapman's Homer and 

 Faust amid surroundings unspeak- 

 ably dismal. I recalled with grate- 

 ful emotions many a cha.nce rela- 

 tion with those whose peers are 

 hard to find warm, elevating 

 friendships of a day, vanishing 

 with the journey's end and there- 

 after irrevocable, leaving the mem- 

 ory of something grand and sweet, 

 to be cherished forever. 



So from the wilderness around 

 me had stepped forth the vener- 

 able doctor, quaint, ill-favored, and 

 shrunk with lonely vigils, yet 

 every inch a gentleman, and bring- 

 ing with him, in the characteristics 

 of his calling, recollections of the 

 learned personage whose portrai- 

 ture adorns the classic romance of 

 Le Sage. 



SENSE OF HUMOR. 



And the sixth sense is the sense 

 of humor. 



Without it a man is like a boat 

 without a rudder, a peacock with- 

 out a tail, an ostrich without a 

 feather, a political aspirant in the 

 United States without money, or 

 a girl without beaux. He is tossed, 

 subject to every wind and wave; 

 he eddies along, now in this port, 

 now in that, for no long space any 

 where, and often lands in the safest 

 place for him an insane asylum. 



No real humorist ever went crazy; 

 none ever committed suicide ; I 

 doubt if any ever killed, with in- 

 tent, his fellow-man. 



In fact, humor is a saving sense. 

 It is as necessary for the voyage of 

 life as life-preservers are for a sea 

 voyage. It keeps a man from grow- 

 ing utterly bad, just as it keeps 

 him from becoming absolutely good 

 that perfect state reached by 

 some. It is a balance-wheel, ad- 

 justing all the unequal volume of a 

 man's nature, placing so much on 

 this side, and so much on that; and 



is as sure as the law of equivalence 

 in chemistry. 



I doubt if the sense can be im- 

 parted to one whose parents failed 

 to attend to the matter in time, that 

 is, before birth; but if it can, I 

 think that the subject ought to be 

 taught in the schools. This educa- 

 tion might be compulsory upon 

 those who can see the point in a 

 French joke. 



At any rate the sense may be cul- 

 tivated. 



The true humorist includes him- 

 self as an object. Some men have 

 a perception of fun, and see others 

 that stand in a ridiculous situation, 

 while their own absurd actions re- 

 main invisible to them; these men 

 are egotists. No person with a 

 well-defined sense of humor can be 

 egotistical, or brag of his own ex- 

 ploits. A friend of mine who has 

 some notable talents along with a 

 delicate sense of humor, wished to 

 tell me what had been said in praise 

 of his work, but could not. "If I 

 did," said he, "I should die laugh- 

 ing." 



For, a well developed sense of 

 humor is the gift Burns wished 

 some power "wad gie us" that we 

 might see ourselves "as ithers see 

 us". We have the capacity to- 

 laugh at ourselves. The man that 

 fell off his bicycle into a mud pud- 

 dle, and was found there laughing 

 boisterously at himself, had a prop- 

 er appreciation of the ridiculous. 



I am almost prepared to say that 

 no really humane man is without a 

 sense of humor, and the want of it 

 in a system permitted the inquisi- 

 tion, the burning of Servetus, and 

 the hanging of witches. 



Indeed, orthodoxy and humor are 

 antagonistic, and where the former 

 gains the ascendency the latter dis- 

 appears. Orthodoxy and oxygen 

 are not miscible. 



The properly constituted physi- 

 cian is a humorist, and, as a result, 

 he grows tender, sympathetic and 

 charitable towards the weak and 

 sinning of the world. He can see 



