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.
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