called cynics from their whelpish ill-temper, but none of them have ever
adopted a real canine snarl, though it might express their feelings
better than human language. Laughter, so far as we can judge, could not
have been obtained by any mere mental exercise, nor would it have come
from imitation, for it is only found in man, the yelping of a hyena
being as different from it as the barking of a dog, or the cackling of
a goose. We may, however, suppose that the first sounds uttered by man
were demonstrative of pain or pleasure, marking a great primary
distinction, which we make in common with all animals. But our next
expression showed superior sensibility and organism: it denoted a very
peculiar perception of the intermingling of pain and pleasure, a
combination of opposite feelings not possessed by other animals, or not
distinct enough in them to have a specific utterance. There might seem
to be something almost physical in the sensation, as it can be excited
by tickling, or the inhalation of gas. Similar results may be produced
by other bodily causes. Homer speaks of the chiefs laughing after a
sumptuous banquet, and of a man "laughing sweetly" when drunk. Bacon's
term _titillatio_, would seem very appropriate in such cases. There was
an idea, in olden times, that laughter emanated from a particular part
of the body. Tasso, in "Jerusalem Delivered," describing the death of
Ardonio, who was slain by a lance, says that it

"Pierced him through the vein
Where laughter has her fountain and her seat,
So that (a dreadful bane)
He laughed for pain, and laughed himself to death."

This idea probably arose from observing the spasmodic power of
laughter, which was greater formerly than now, and to the same origin we
may attribute the stories of the fatal consequences it has, at times,