Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



517 



MASTERS OF THE MAGAZINES. 



The Twentieth Century Magazine contain.s an article 

 on this subject by Mr. George French, who has evi- 

 dently made a close study of his theme. He makes due 

 acknowledgment to the old-time journal :— 



In taking upon themselves the task of settling most of the 

 important matters of the world, they made a brief period of 

 vivid and interesting sociological history. They had a great 

 vogue, and have done a great service. Hut they had no settled 

 and co-ordinated policy ; they did not, that is, know just what 

 they were attempting to do. They sprang into being to answer 

 some demands of the social unrest that has possessed us for these 

 several years ; but they were too ready to deal with problems 

 they did not take the pains to analyse and understand. They 

 saw an awakening sentiment to he ministered to, and its precise 

 nature, its general trend, played no part in the immediate 

 purpose to exploit it to the utmost. The ningnzines were in the 

 field to effect reforms become the voice of the people— as many 

 people as they cuuld sell their product to. They have effected 

 relorms, and they did become the voice of many people ; at 

 least they became a voice crying in the wilderness of a venal 

 press ; and many people have been willing to acknowledge that 

 it was the voice of the people if not the voice of God. 



THE .MISSION OF THE MAG.AZINE. 



The mission of the magazine to educate is departing, 

 and the question to-dav is " What the Public 

 Wants " :— 



The magazine exists because of two promises — to deliver 

 copies to its subscribers and to deliver business to its advertisers. 

 With its copies, the popular magazine agrees to deliver thrills ; 

 and those thrills are depended upon to keep old readers from 

 year to year and constantly win new ones. Kditorial skill 

 resides in the discovery of the art of manufacturing the thrills. 



Mr. French submits the current periodical literature 

 of the U.S.A. to a close analysis, and discusses the 

 important question of financial control, and the result- 

 ing subservience of the editors to the requirements of 

 their proprietors. 



THE SHEEI' AND THE UOATS. 



He assumes the role of arbiter, and attempts a 

 division betwixt the sheep and the goats : — 



There are certain well-known magazines which have not 

 grown faithless, since they were never faithful, 10 the people. 

 They have never been other than frankly sympathetic with 

 money. They arc owned by rich men or corporations, and are 

 not what I am calling popular magazines. 'I'hey pay little 

 attention to matters of a news nature, nor do they perform 

 knight-errantry. They are solely for entertainment and culture. 

 The Ccninry, //aipfr's, Scnbncr's and the Allanlic ate the 

 foremost representatives of the group. They are all admirable 

 cla.ss publications, and their function is so clear they have not 

 been suspected of independence ; but their timidity has been and 

 is an injury to .\tnctieaii literature. There is another class of 

 magazim , alKiut which I am not so certain. It is represented by 

 the Worit's H'ork, the Kivido of Keiirws, the Oiillook, and some 

 others. These arc <o admirable in their general conduct, and so 

 ably c<liled, that one is templed to pass them over and assume 

 that they are not subject to any influence outside that of their 

 coTuIuctors. The Outlook twice abruptly changed its policy in 

 response to some inducncc— during the bimetallist controversy 

 and at the time of the Spanish- .\merican war; but its cdilois 

 are constitutional conserv.-itivcs, and their sympathies arc 

 temperamentally conliollcd where any of the great businessesarc 

 coiiccrnr<l. Dr. .Shaw has done such splcndiil work with bis 

 Revitw that the man must be a churl who could believe that he 

 is not independent ami amenable only to his own fine sense of 

 right. 



We are promised a continuance of this critical survey. 



WHY DO WE LAUGH? 



-An erudite discussion on laughter is a feature of the 

 Edinhuroh Review for April. The following is the 

 description of laughter and of the causes that lead to 

 laughter :- - 



We must then assiime that at any mojntnt the existing 

 quantity of liberated nerve force which in some way, little 

 understood, produces in us the state we call feeling, must expand 

 itself in some direction, and if of several channels one or more 

 is closed, or partially closed, the disth.uge along the remaining 

 one must be more intense. Laughter is a disjilay of muscular 

 excitement and so illustrates tlic general law that feeling when 

 it passes a certain pitch vents itself in bodily action. It is not a 

 sense of the ludicrous only ; there is sardonic laughter, hysterical 

 laughter from menial distress, laughter from tickling, and, 

 under certain conditions, from cold and certain kinds of pain. 



If now we have this overflow of nerve forte, undirected by 

 any particular motive, it will manifestly take the most habitual 

 route. It is through the organs of speech that feeling passes 

 into movement witli the greatest frequency. The muscles round 

 the mouth, small and easy to move, are the lirst to contract 

 untler pleasurable emotion. The class of m.uscles which may 

 be considered next most easily set in action by feelings of all 

 kinds are those of respiration. We breathe more quickly 

 under excitement of any kind, so that it is not difficult to see 

 the likelihood of convulsive movenunts of the respiratory organs 

 being set up. If the feeling still continues and increases the 

 muscles of the upper limbs are set in motion, the hands are 

 rubbed together or clapped, the knees slapped, the body is 

 swayed backwards and forwards. Roughly speaking, then, «e 

 see that the feeling excites to muscular action, and that when 

 the muscular action is unguided by purpose the muscles fiist 

 aflfected are those most habitually stimulated, followed in due 

 course by the others. 



"descending incongruity." 



.•\fter quoting Herbert Spencer's " Physiology of 

 Laughter," the writer proceeds : — 



We do not then laugh simply at any incongruity, but when 

 the unexpected state of feeling aroused is less in intensity, so 

 leaving us, as it were, with something in hand to be expancled — 

 i.e., when the attention is transferred from something greater to 

 something smaller — and this Herbert .Spencer describes as 

 "descending incongruity." A simple example will make this 

 clear. If «e watch a door opening slowly with the full expecta- 

 tion of the entrance of some imposing and important personage, 

 and then instead there trots in a small dog or some quite un- 

 impoilant and insignificant person — we laugh. We were pre- 

 pared adequately for the greater event, and we have a supply of 

 nervous energy over. If, on the other hand, we reverse the 

 process and the incongruity is of a marked degree of the oppo- 

 site kind— /.(•., unexpectedly important— we are lel't with an 

 insuflicient stock of nervous energy and arc more likely to be 

 left motionless, with our muulhs open, until we have time to 

 recover ourselves. 



.After reviewing the dctinition.s of wit and humour, 

 and quoting M. Bergson's saying that " the attitudes, 

 gestures, and movements ol the htmian body are laugh- 

 able in exact proportion as that body reminds us of a 

 mere machine," the writer .iltempls a defiiiiiion of the 

 sense of humour : — 



As soon as we use the expression " sense of humour " it is 

 widely recognised as at once defining and limiting the use of 

 the word in a peculiar way. It betokens a certain kindly, 

 tolerant, broad-minded point of view, keenly alive to incon- 

 sistencies and incongruities, quick to note ami to place in a view 

 where they become patent the small tailings and absurdities, but 

 at the same lime with a sympathciie uiulcrslanding which sug- 

 gests a nature large enough tci sec the faults and yet not lo le 

 repelled by thcui. 



