44 CHANGE 



amusement at the mishap depends upon the im- 

 pression which his dignity and his humiliation 

 successively make upon us : it would disappear 

 altogether were he seriously hurt : it is not shared 

 at all by the victim of the accident. " Her 

 father was asleep in the library : her mother was 

 dead, so she could count upon receiving the 

 young man alone." Here we are suddenly taken 

 from the idea of a siesta to that of a funeral, and, 

 again, to the contemplation of a young woman's 

 love affairs. It is supposed by the eminent 

 French psychologist, M. Henri Bergson, that 

 laughter, provoked by the ludicrous, has a pur- 

 poseful value, being a means by which society 

 corrects the abnormalities or eccentricities of 

 individuals. But this theory does not appear to 

 cover the ground. The question is not one of 

 laughter, but of amusement : our laughter is only 

 the expression of our amusement, and it is quite 

 possible to be amused in silence. 



The pleasure of gambling is no doubt associated 

 in some degree with a desire for gain. But the 

 typical gambler is rather prodigal than avaricious, 

 and covetousness contributes but little to his 

 excitement. The alternations of chance produce 

 two strongly contrasted moods that of winning 

 and that of losing and the prospects of the game 

 arouse in imagination the changes in mood that 

 would follow luck's vagaries. Change is thus of the 

 essence of a gambler's pleasure : in this respect, 

 chance resembles the ludicrous. For the gambler, 

 however, the circumstances are too exciting to be 

 funny : his personal interests are at stake. But 

 you may often see bystanders smile when the 

 changes of luck are particularly frequent. 



Here, also, may be classed the pleasure which 

 Oriental peoples take in litigation. During the 

 course of a suit the imagination of the litigants 



