. The excitement
necessary for the enjoyment of humour is then neutralized by deeper
feelings, and they are perhaps more inclined to sigh than to laugh, or
the nervous action being entirely dormant, they remain unaffected. But
not only do people's feelings on various subjects differ in kind and in
amount, but also in result. The same idea produces different emotions
in different men, and the same emotion different effects. One man will
regard an event as insignificant, and will not laugh at it; another will
consider it important, but still will be unable to keep his countenance,
where most men would be grave. The experience of daily life teaches us
that different men act very differently under the same kind of emotion.
The Ancients laughed at calamities, which would call forth our
commiseration, their consideration for others not being so great, nor
their appreciation of suffering so acute. But in the cases of some few
individuals, and of barbarous nations, we sometimes find at the present
day instances of the ludicrous seasoned with considerable hostility.
Floegel tells us that he knew a man in Germany who took especial delight
in witnessing tortures and executions, and related the circumstances
attending them with the greatest enjoyment and laughter. In "Two Years
in Fiji," we read, "Among the appliances which I had brought with me to
Fiji, from Sydney, were a stethoscope and a scarifier. Nothing was
considered more witty by those in the secret than to place this
apparently harmless instrument on the back of some unsuspecting native,
and touch the spring. In an instant twelve lancets would plunge into
the swarthy flesh. Then would follow a long-drawn cry, scarcely audible
amidst peals of laughter from the bystanders."

It has been said that our non-appreciation of hostile humour is much
owing to the suppression of feeling in conventional society, but I think
that there is also an influence in civilization, which subdues and
directs our emotions. A certain difference in this respect can be traced
in the higher and lower classes of the population. This, and the
difference in reasoning power, have led to the observation that "the
last thing in which a cultivated man can have community with the vulgar
is in jocularity."

Jesting on religious subjects, has generally arisen from scepticism,
deficiency in taste, or disbelief in the injurious consequences of the
practice. Some consider that levity is likely to bring any subj