Mercur Miner | 1905-09-13 | Page 2 | The Value of Laughter

THE VALUE OF LAUGHTER. One of the Most Potent Forces With Which to Combat Evil. Is laughter Immoral? That Is a very lmportnnt objection urged against comedy from generation to generation. It Is not only not Immoral, but It Is tho preservation of morals to cultivate by uso a faculty for all sorts of lnughtor. It Is the hallucination hallucina-tion of provalont ovll which drives mon to despair. Now, ovll nlwnys seems to bo provnlont when you scrutinize scru-tinize It, for scrutiny Involves con-flnod con-flnod nttontlon to what lies Immodlato-ly Immodlato-ly under tho lens In tho foousod light. Being wherever wo see, we surmise, nay affirm, It to bo everywhere. every-where. But wero It really ovorywhere you and I could not be hero to express ex-press such nn opinion. Clearly tho thing to do then Is to belittle tho evil by fair means and foul, to undlgnlfy it nnd so rob It ot Its horrors that wo shall not loso wits or henrt. By laughing laugh-ing at tho ovll we get rid of the falsa Impression ot its nmnlpotonco, wo got a little courage nnd our despair turns a somorsault up Into glory from tho swinging trnpezo of faith. International Interna-tional Quarterly.