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T was the opinion of Thomas Love Peacock—who knew whereof he spoke—that "no man should ask another why he laughs, or at what, seeing that he does not always know, and that, if he does, he is not a responsible agent. . . . Reason is in no way essential to mirth."

This being so, why should human beings, individually and collectively, be so contemptuous of one another's humour? To be puzzled by it is natural enough. There is nothing in the world so incomprehensible as the joke we do not see. But to be scornful or angry, to say with Steele that we can judge a man's temper by the things he laughs at, is, in a measure, unreasonable. A man laughs as he loves, moved by secret springs that do not affect his neighbour. Yet no sooner did America