well as physical anguish, and laughter denoted a mixed pleasurable
feeling either in mind or body. There is a remarkable instance of this
transference from the senses to the emotional feelings in the case of
what is called sardonic laughter, in which a similar contortion of
countenance to that caused by the pungency of a Sardinian herb is
considered to denote a certain moral acerbity. Here there is an analogy
established between the senses and emotions in their outward
manifestation, just as there is in language in the double meaning of
such terms as bitter and sweet.

When we consider the fact that matter is that which gives, and mind that
which receives impressions, or that our perceptions do not teach the
nature of external things, but that of our own constitution, we shall
admit that there is not such a fundamental difference between feelings
derived from the sense of touch, and those coming through our other
senses. But we must observe that there is a great practical difference
between them, inasmuch as the one sense remains in its original
primitive state, and is not cultivated as are the others. Physical
laughter requires no previous experience, no exercise of judgment, and
therefore has no connection with the intellectual powers of the mind.
The lowest boor may laugh on being tickled, but a man must have
intelligence to be amused by wit. The senses which are the least
discriminating are the least productive of humour, little is derived
from that of smell or of taste, though we may talk sometimes of an
educated palate and an acquired taste. The finer organs of sight and
hearing are the chief mediums of humour, but the sense of touch might by
education be rendered exquisitely sensitive, and Dickens mentions the
case of a girl he met in Switzerland who was blind, deaf, and dumb, but
who was constantly laughing. Among infants, also, where very slight
complication is required, the sense of humour can be excited by touch.
Thus nurses will sing, "Brow brinky, eye winkey, nose noppy, cheek
cherry, mouth merry," and greatly increase the little one's appreciation
by, at the same time, touching the features named. Contact with other
bodies occasions a sensation, and might, by degrees, awaken an emotion;
and we might thus have such a sense of the ludicrous as that obtained
through eye and ear, which is sometimes almost intuitive, and but
slightly derived from reflection or experience. Of this kind is that
aroused by the rap