ns fools, but
always with detestation. To him the term did not convey any idea of
frivolity or eccentricity, but of crime and wickedness. All these
considerations tend to convince us that we can see in the writings of
David a fairly good reflection of the mirth common in his day. Add to
this that there is no trace in any contemporary work of an attempt
beyond the emotional phases of the ludicrous, and we do not at this time
read of any performance of Jewish plays, or of any kind of amusing
representations.

A more advanced, but less faithful age is represented by another man.
The soldier-king passed away to make room for one educated under milder
influences. He inherited not the piety or warlike virtues of his father,
but turned the same greatness of mind into a more luxurious and learned
channel. In his writings we find little that approaches the sublime, but
much that implies analytical depth and complexity of thought. His tone
bespeaks a settled and civilized period favourable to art and
philosophy, in which subtlety was appreciated, while the old feelings of
acerbity had become greatly softened.

In the intellectual and moral state at this date, there were many
conditions favourable to the development of humour. But we do not find
it yet actually existing, although we must suppose that a mind capable
of forming proverbs could not have been entirely insensible to it. We
may define a proverb to be a moral statement, instructive in object, and
epigrammatically expressed. It is always somewhat controversial, and
when it approaches a truism scarcely deserves the name.

A great many of Solomon's proverbs may be regarded in two lights, and I
think a comparison between some of them will show that he was aware of
the fact, and if so he could scarcely have avoided feeling some sense
of the ludicrous, and even of having a slight idea of humour in its
higher phases. I shall allude in illustration of this to a proverb often
quoted ironically at the present day. "In the multitude of counsellors
there is wisdom," and which we have combated and answered by a common
domestic adage.

Again Solomon is rather hard upon the failings of the ladies, "The
contentions of a wife," he says, "are a continual dropping." "It is
better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman
in a wide house." "It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a
contentious and angry woman." The meaning of all these sayings must be
tha