In spite of these sinister indications, an eye patient in search may descry others which point to the persistence of a wholesome laughter. Even if comedy and satire seem {432} tired and slumbering, the humorous spirit is awake and productive. We have in the literature of more than one country the promise of a development of new tones of quiet, reflective laughter. The growth of a wider appreciation of other literatures than our own is overcoming the obstacles, already touched on, to an international appreciation of flavours, so far at least as to allow of a _rapprochement_ of the larger-minded members of civilised nations in a reciprocal enjoyment of their humorous writings. For the rest, we may put our trust in the growing volume of what I have called private laughter. It is not unlikely that in the future, men who think will grow at once more tenacious of their ideals, and more alive to the ludicrous consequences which these introduce. If so, they will become still less like gay-hearted children than they now are, and will have to brighten the chamber of life, as it loses the blithe morn-given light, with the genial glow of humour. They will be able to keep the flame alive with fuel drawn from the storehouse of literature. In this work of conserving human laughter they will do well, while developing the thoughtfulness of the humorist, to keep in touch with the healthiest types of social laughter, the simple mirth of the people preserved in the _contes_ and the rest, and the enduring comedies. If a few men will cultivate their own laughter in this way and do their best to make their private amusement that of an inner circle of friends, we may hope that it will not die—though the death of what we love were less terrible to face than its debasement—but be preserved by a few faithful hands for a happier age. They will have their reward in advance, since pure and honest laughter, like mercy, blesses him that gives, and him that takes. NOTES [1] Article on “Humour” in the _Cornhill Magazine_, vol. xxxiii., pp. 318–26. [2] See B. Bosanquet, _History of Æsthetics_, p. 360, where we are told that serious modern comedy, such as Molière’s _L’Avare_, is, according to Hegel, wanting in this characteristic. [3] _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, Band II., Erstes Buch, Kap. viii. [4] _Le Rire_, published by Félix Alcan, 1900. [5] See an article “Pourquoi rit-on?” by Camille Mélinaud, in the _Revue des deux Mondes_, 1895 (Tom. 127, p. 612 ff.). The theory of M. Mélinaud seems to resemble closely that of Jean Paul Richter and others, which Lotze criticises, _Geschichte der Æsthetik_, p. 346. [6] M. Bergson furnishes some striking illustrations of the forcing of a theory on reluctant facts in his treatment of the laughable aspect of the red nose and the black skin, _op. cit._, p. 41 ff.