ult of this volume, in the eyes of many readers, will be a certain
confusion in the arrangement of the matter, and the want of sufficient
expansion in the development of some of its leading suggestions. But it
must be judged as the earnest utterances of a poet, rather than a grave
didactic treatise. With the purpose which the author had in view, a
spice of rhapsody is no defect. He presents a beautiful example of the
smiling wisdom of which he is such an eloquent advocate. He has an
intuitive sense of the genial and joyous aspects of life, and has no
sympathies to waste on the victims of 'carking care' or morbid
melancholy. A more complete exposition of the conditions of cheerfulness
in the nature of man, would furnish materials for an interesting volume;
but it belongs more properly to an ethical or philosophical discourse.
We will not complain of the author for not doing what he has not
attempted--for what he had no inward call or outward occasion; what he
could not have accomplished but at the sacrifice of much which
constitutes the charm and grace of the present work; while we cordially
thank him for this endeavor to speak a cheering word in behalf of the
joyousness of life, and to spread 'sunshine in the shady place.'

R.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: SUNSHINE IN THOUGHT. By CHARLES GODFREY LELAND. 12mo, pp.
197. New York: Geo. P. Putnam.]

HOW THEY JESTED IN THE GOOD OLD TIME.

There is nothing which contributes so much to ease social intercourse as
the jest. In comparison with it, the proverb is only a humble
subordinate, and song itself, with all its power, but a weak influence.
Yet the song and the proverb boast a critical literature, while the
brief compendiums of merriment which never die, which, once written,
live through every age, and force their way through every penetrable
language, are undoubtedly less studied than any other popular medium of
feeling.

What is a jest? It is as little worth the while to try to define its
nature, as it is to analyze wit. We all know that the world laughs, and
what it laughs at, and what the droll saws, anecdotes, rhymes, quips,
and facetiae are, which give fame to a Bebel, or a Frischlin, a Tom
Brown, and a Joseph Miller. Leave labored analysis to the philosophers,
contenting ourselves with remarking that a jest is a laugh candied or
frozen in words, and thawed and relished in the reading or u