Here we may say our views are corrected,
and our amusement comes from a resolution or rebirth. But reflection
will show that whatever our final conclusion may be, we laugh at what
seems to us, at the moment, unaccountable and wrong; and as soon as we
begin to correct ourselves, and to see how the event occurred, our
merriment disappears.
Many instances will occur to us in which what is really right may appear
wrong. Most of us have heard the proverb "If the day is fine take an
umbrella, if it rains do as you like." It may give good advice, but we
should be much inclined to laugh at anyone who adopted it.
Leon Dumont, the latest writer who has added considerably to our
knowledge on this subject, does not admit the existence of imperfection
in the ludicrous. But the arguments which he adduces do not seem to be
conclusive. He says, for instance, that we laugh at love and amatory
adventures because they abound in deceptions! But deception always
implies ignorance or falsity, and the extravagant phraseology of love,
the fanciful names, the griefs and ecstasies, are not only ridiculous
in themselves, but lead us to regard lovers generally as bereft of
reason.
Dumont observes, in support of his theory, that "when a small man bobs
his head in passing under a door, we laugh." But if a puppet or a
pantaloon were to do so we should scarcely be amused, for we could
account for it, and see nothing wrong in his action.
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