Excerpt from The Yale Literary Magazine, Vol. 24: August, 1859 Our Saviour, it is said, though on what authority I have never dis covered, was not ever known to laugh. But are we prepared to believe, that he who wept for, and felt, and knew, all the sorrows and sufferings of others, could not also laugh and rejoice outwardly with their pleasures and happiness? Both are sympathetic emotions, and can we suppose, that he who was the embodiment of a perfect humanity, possessed the one, without the other? No, laughter is God-given; the safety-valve of pent-up griefs, and suppressed sorrow. The causes of laughter are, of course, as many, as its occurrence is frequent. But we fear that the greatest cause of all, is, - nothing How many times, my dear Sir, or Madame, have you laughed at nothing? I know you can't tell. And yet there's a presumption in favor of your being a sensible man or woman. I don't mean to say that you, particularly, have sinned in this respect. It is almost a universal weakness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.