“Oh how--oh, how it tickles!” she cried and suddenly began to laugh. “Oh, how funny--how queer--but oh, how delightful. I do, I do like it!” Dulcina, Carrilla and Dianne each in their turn clamored for the experiment, and each was hilariously initiated into the lost art. “There,” I exclaimed, pointing to Acquilla, who was laughing at their first contortions, “now she is laughing at you.” “I am laughing because they are making such strange faces,” said Acquilla, wiping the tears from her eyes. At this moment Mag entered with a tray. I waited my moment and suddenly pulled the rug from under her. The four women burst out laughing at the sudden sprawling descent. But all at once Acquilla frowned and with a gesture of dismissal to the maid, said: “Bogardus, is laughter then so cruel!” I saw my mistake and tried to rectify it. “Laughter in that case was simply an atavistic sense of superiority. It was because Mag was placed in a ludicrous light, that our self-superiority expressed itself in a laugh. But that is only a trivial and a very obvious side.” “Wait!” Acquilla stopped me with a frown. “You have done a daring and it may be an unwise thing, Bogardus. There are illimitable consequences to what you have taught us. Perhaps this is what was meant by the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” “Acquilla, how ridiculous!” exclaimed Dulcina, and to my horror began to giggle. “There you see,” said Acquilla sombrely. “The poison has already begun to act! Bogardus, answer my question.” When Acquilla was in this mood the effect was terrifying. A sudden hush ensued and I caught an admonishing glance from Dianne. “You say, Bogardus, that laughter has overthrown tyrannies and superstitions. That is good. But answer me truthfully: has it never destroyed the reputation of a genius or caused the decadence of a great civilization?” “You are thinking of some particular instance?” I said, to gain time. “Of many, Bogardus. Was not Pericles driven out by ridicule and weren’t the greatest of the Greek tragedians made the butt of the coarse humor of Aristophanes and his school? And in a larger sense, did not the most brilliant of your civilizations lapse into an intellectual and political decadence when the Athenians had learned to turn everything into ridicule?” “You are ascribing to one cause what must have been the result of many. And I may remind you that Æschylus, Euripides and Sophocles have remained among the immortals.” “You are adroit, Bogardus, but you are temporizing. Let us go further. Answer me honestly. Was not the spirit of irony directed against your most sacred institutions? And wasn’t the object of your so-called humorists to ridicule everything you held by; the family relationship, marriage, the established church, your statesmen, your professors and your traditions?”