MIGRATION 43 



ancient superstitions have practically become 

 established throughout the world. The impulse 

 may be deadened by long-continued habit : 

 peoples who have settled down to the routine of 

 agriculture are usually much attached to their 

 fields and homes. But those who subsist by 

 pasturing cattle, or by cultivating the land after 

 a shifting fashion, or become hard pressed for 

 food, are liable to be strongly moved by it. For 

 uncounted centuries it has impelled the peoples 

 of Northern Europe towards the Mediterranean : 

 more recently it has urged them to establish 

 colonies of their own across the seas. Nor 

 has it always led the wanderers towards the 

 superior comfort of a promised land. The gipsies 

 have roamed northwards into a more rigorous 

 climate and harder conditions than they ex- 

 perienced in their Eastern home. In the migratory 

 instinct is seated the attractiveness of travel, and 

 the impulse, hardly to be resisted by the most 

 home-loving of English families, to go abroad, or 

 to the seaside, once a year. 



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We may perhaps find in this desire for change 

 the origin of three very curious human pleasures 

 the pleasures of the ludicrous, of gambling, and 

 of intoxication. In all of them an agreeable 

 emotion is associated with sudden changes of 

 mood. If instances of the ludicrous, in circum- 

 stances or in words, are analysed, it will be found 

 that the essence lies in an abrupt alteration of 

 mental attitude, which must not, however, be 

 attended with the excitement that would be 

 caused by any personal interest, and must not 

 arouse any so serious an emotion as pity, shame, 

 or indignation. This condition is essential. A 

 passer-by slips and falls on the pavement. Our 



