MAN A LAUGHING ANIMAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 201, 12 December 1876, Page 4

MAN A LAUGHING ANIMAL.

The Galaxy says that the capacity of laughter Is one of the few distinguishing tnuts of man. No other animals laa"h. Eventhe monkey fails here to imitate The superior creature, who, according to Darwin, is only one stage above and a few thousand year, beyond himcan chatter, but he shows n 0 semblance of laughter under whatever provocation. And yet the lower animate ca n weep ; and ■when they cannot shed tears they can cry : and many of them do it in a most piteous and touching manner. It is very remarkableand significant, this a Miity of the iofenor animal to express pn in and grief oy the tone of the vote® and by tears, and . his inability to indulge in any form of Warrty. _Bat the reason is obvious, langhter is the result and the outcome of raaaon. Man alone, of all animals, laughs, because he alone of animals is capable of the perception of absurdity, or of stirprise at the connection of two thoughts or facts, one of which perceptions will be found to be at the bottom of all langhter. - Even the laugh that " speaks the vacant " is the laugh of a reasonable crtatnre. The grade of intellect tnay be very low. and consequently the cause of laughter May be mane ; bat the on i is suited to the other, and the clown laughs for the lane reason that moves the mirth of Shakespeare or Bacon, although he has a different occasion for the laughter. The point remains unsettled, however, why a perception of absurdity, or a pleasant surprise, should produce the convulsive ana involuntary action which we call laughter. The ratumak of crying and of tears is known , and in these days of minute scientifi«al investigation we may look for an exhaustive inquiry into this subject, which could not fail to be full of interest.