The Sense of Humour

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 172, 21 April 1928, Page 19

The Sense of Humour

a SENSE of humour depends essentially on the presence of certain intellectual factors, such as the power of perZ Ti ceiving shades of meaning, or differences between objects, X J®, that pass unnoticed by a clumsy mind. A really keen

sense of humour is, indeed, one of the rarest things in the world,” writes Richmond H. Hollyar in the “Contemporary Review.” “Only a wise man can be a man of deep humour. For only a wise man—a man of rare natural ability of intellect and a wide experience —has the capacity to see these so elusive relations and so delicate differences. A profound perception of the comic demands, a priori, a thorough acquaintance with the world of things and events. It demands, equally, an unusual and keen insight into the subtleties of life that is only granted to the few.

“But, one asks,’if those^theories'that describe the comic alone, without the man, are true, why is it that the wise men of the earth are not the greatest laughers? Why is it that all men of wisdom are not all men of inexhaustible humour, laughing without end at the ignorance, the mistakes, and the general fatheadedness that rolls on so merrily with the world? Why is Democritus the only laughing philosopher? “The reason is partly because our men of wisdom are very often self-appointed—and the wiseacre can hardly be expected to laugh—and partly because the intellectual effort of hard thinking is not, in itself, an

encouragement to laughter. But the real reason lies far deeper. It is of the very man himself. It is because the philosopher, or dramatist, or man of science, or novelist, is that kind of man, that he is, or is not, a great laugher.

“The wise man, when he is a laugher, is a splendid one. lam not going to mention any names; for there is nothing more eagerly coveted than the reputation of possessing an acute sense of humour and an unlimited capacity for laughter; and nothing more resented than the imputation of their possible absence. It is sufficient to note that they do exist, and that we should be thankful for it. “It is, I repeat, the man himself, the individual temperament, that lies at the root of his laughter. It is when a wise man is also a merry man that the blessed mantle of humour falls on him. But jollity and the merry mind are not distributed reasonably among men. Nature scatters such rare gifts recklessly.

“Duke and drayman, baron and brewer, prince and philosopher, are merry or dismal simply because they happen to be made so. And nothing, not even a miraculous eugenics, will ever alter this, which is the nature of things. If. therefore, as is quite conceivable, you believe yourself to possess a rich sense of humour, take it as a blessing, not as a personal achievement.”- -