METAPHYSICS ^55 



Can Arrange them. No two birds have ever been known 

 to sing a duet. 



But when we see what intense pleasure music affords 

 man, from the tom-tom to Handel's " Messiah," we take 

 it as one of the innumerable coincidences which point 

 to Intention between the supposed Creator and His 

 creation. 



The same argument applies to the appreciation of 

 works of art — the " aesthetic sense " from, the primitive 

 drawings of animal forms on bones by pre-historic man to 

 the pictures in the National Gallery. 



Further, as C. Kingsley thought, we cannot exclude 

 Fun and Humour from our list of " Intentions". Fun is 

 abundantly displayed among animals, but humour, wit 

 and laughter appear to be confined to man. Certainly 

 it is so when based on abstract ideas. But monkeys seem 

 to be humorous about concrete things ; as when I saw a 

 monkey at the Zoo snatch a lady's pocket-handkerchief, 

 wrap his head up in it and then bound off from perch 

 to perch. 



Man is often spoken of as the only laughing animal. 

 It mainly arises in consequence of strong incongruities 

 presented to the sight or imagination ; but why we 

 should laugh — though it gives us pleasure — is inexplic- 

 able. Thus, a clergyman had hung a number of pictures 

 of sacred subjects in his vestry for some time for the in- 

 struction of his villagers. The village attendant on 

 coming in after their removal, burst out laughing and 

 said : " How funny the vestry looks without the pictures ". 

 Is it possible to explain why one should laugh at any 

 unaccustomed contrasts? At all events it is -a. natural 

 law that they somehow cause us amusement. This is 

 why conundrums hold their ground so tenaciously among 

 us ; and they are especially " funny " when the abstract 



