s by changing our
circumstances. It is said that if a man were to look at people dancing
with his ears stopped, the figures moving without accompaniment would
seem ludicrous to him, but his merriment would not be great because he
would know the strangeness he observed was not real but caused by his
own intentional act. We may say that for a thing to appear ludicrous to
a man which does not seem so at present, he must change the character of
his mind.

There is another kind of constancy which should here be noticed. Some
humorous sayings survive for long periods, and occasionally are adopted
in foreign countries. In some cases they have immortalized a name, in
others we know not who originated them, or to whom they first referred.
They seem to be the production, as they are the heritage, not of man but
of humanity. It is essential to the permanence of humour that it should
refer to large classes, and awaken emotions common to many. If Socrates
and Xantippe, the philosopher and the shrew, had not represented
classes, and an ordinary connection in life, we should have been little
amused at their differences.[16]

Having mentioned these few first aspects in which humour is constant, we
now come to the wider field of its variation. It may be said to vary
with the age, with the century, with classes of society, with the time
of life, nay, it has been asserted, with the very hours of the day! The
simplest mode in which we can demonstrate this character of humour is to
consider some of those things which although amusing to others are not
so to us, and those which amuse us, but not others; we sometimes regard
as ludicrous what is intended to be humorous, sometimes on the other
hand we view as humorous what is seriously meant, and sometimes we take
gravely what is intended to be amusing.

A man may make what he thinks to be a jest, and be neither humorous nor
ludicrous, and a man may cause others to laugh without being one or the
other; for what he says may be amusing, although he does not intend it
to be so, or he may be merely relating some actual occurrence.
Occasionally, there is some doubt as to whether we regard things as
ludicrous or humorous. This is seen in some proverbs.

But the most common and strongly marked instances of variation are where
what is seriously taken by one person is regarded as ludicrous by
another. Thus the conception of the qualities desirable in public
speaking are very different on this side t