THE SENSE OF HUMOUR

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6630, 8 June 1928, Page 3

THE SENSE OF HUMOUR

“A sense of humour depends essentially on the presence of certain intellectual factors, such as the power of perceiving shades of meaning, or differences between objects that pass unnoticed by a clumsy mind. A really keen sense of humour, is indeed, one of tho rarest things in the 1 world,” writes Richmond H. Hellyar 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, $ thorough acquaintance with tho world of things and events. It demands usually, 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, arc true, why is it that the wise men of tho earth are not tho greatest laughers? Why is it that all men of wisdom are not men of inexhaustible humour, laughing without end at tho ignorance, the mistakes, the general fatheadedness that rolls so merrily on with the world? Why is Democritus the only laughing philosopher? “The reason is partly because our men of wisdom are very often self-ap-pointed —and the wiseacre can hardly be expected to laugh—and partly because tho 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 tho 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; fpr there is nothing more widely 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.-

1 ‘‘lt 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 merry mind are not distributed reasonably among men. Nature scatters such rare gifts f7‘‘Duke and drayman, baron and brewer, prince and philosopher arc merry or dismal simply because they happen to bo made so. And nothing, not even a miraculous eugeniese, 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, tako it as a blessing, not as a personal achievement.”