There is no reason why we should view laughter at what is ludicrous as
something objectionable. The more intelligent portion of the civilised
world is not now amused at the real sufferings or misfortunes of others.
If a man be run over in the street, and have his leg broken, we all
sympathise with him. But some pains which have no serious result are
still treated with levity, such as those of a gouty foot, of the
extraction of a tooth, or of little boys birched at school.
The actions of people in pain are strange and abnormal, and sometimes
seem unaccountable; it is not the mere suffering at which any are
amused. We can sometimes laugh at a person, although we feel for him,
where the incentive to mirth is much stronger than the call for
sympathy. Still we confess that some of the old malice lingers among us,
some skulking cruelty peeps out at intervals. Fiendish laughter has
departed with the Middle Ages, but what delights the schoolboy more than
the red-hot poker in the pantomime?
Wit is chiefly to be recommended as a source of enjoyment; to many this
will seem no great or legitimate object, for we cannot help drawing a
very useful distinction between pleasure and profit. The lines,
"There are whom heaven has blessed with store of wit
Yet want as much again to manage it;
For wit and judgment ever are at strife,
Though meant, each others, and like man and wife,"
teach us that talent of this kind may be often turned into a fruitful
channel.
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