id changes of form and colour of the kaleidoscope, and
those pantomimic representations which amuse the young and uneducated,
and others who live mostly in the senses.

We have now arrived at the emotional phase of laughter, that in which
emotion far exceeds intellectual action. At this stage, we have a kind
of laughter which we may call that of pleasure, inasmuch as it is the
first that deserves a distinct name. This laughter of pleasure required
very little complication of thought, contained no unamiable feeling, and
expressed the mildest sense of the ludicrous. At the same time, it did
not flow from any mere constitutional joyousness, but only arose upon
certain occasions, in consequence of some remarkable and unusual
occurrence--such as the reception of glad tidings, or the sudden
acquisition of some good fortune. This ancient laughter, now no longer
existing, is alluded to in early writings.

Thus we read in Gen. xxi. 6, that Sarah, on the birth of Isaac, said
"God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me,"
and in Ps. cxxvi., "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we
were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and
our tongue with singing." And in Proverbs we find, "There is a time to
weep, and a time to laugh," contrasting the expression of sorrow with
that of pleasure. Passing into Greek literature, we find laughter
constantly termed "sweet." In Iliad xxi, "Saturn smiled sweetly at
seeing his daughter;" in xxiii. "The chiefs arose to throw the shield,
and the Greeks laughed, _i.e._, with joy." In Odyssey, xx. 390, they
prepare the banquet with laughter. Od. xxii., 542, Penelope laughs at
Telemachus sneezing, when she is talking of Ulysses' return; she takes
it for a good omen. And in the Homeric Hymns, which, although inferior
in date to the old Bard, are still among the earliest specimens of
literature, we find, in that to Mercury, that the god laughs on
beholding a tortoise, "thinking that he will make a beautiful lyre out
of its shell;" and a little further on, Apollo laughs at hearing the
sound of the lyre. In the hymn to Aphrodite, the laughter-loving Venus
laughed sweetly when she thought of men and mortals being intermarried.
The fact that this and the preceding kinds of laughter were not
necessarily regarded as intellectual, is evident from the ancient poets
attributing them to vegetable and inorganic life. Considerable licence
in personification