be supposed that it will diminish happiness. Never was there a greater error than the supposition that knowledge can diminish happiness. Sensualists have always, and poets have occasionally sung, that, Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise. "Do not," (says a modern poet), At the mere touch of cold philosophy? in my diet; modest in my discourse; courteous and affable to my inferiors; and have ever paid a respect and reverence to my betters." It thus appears that our pleasure from pictures depends upon our knowledge, and is limited by it. It is not confined to pictures, but extends to every object. Ignorance, for instance, sees in a rainbow, a large arch in the clouds, composed of various colours parallel to each other. Intelligence sees this, and sees more. It sees the various reflections and refractions of sun-beams in drops rain, so situated, as to produce this beautiful appearance. Intelligence thinks of this beautiful discovery by Newton, and raises his thoughts to Him, who placeth his bow in the heavens; "very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof, and the hand of the Lord hath bended it." So says the poet. Let us not say with Mrs. Peachum, that the poets are bitter bad judges in matters of philosophy, but with John Milton, "How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, In the main, ignorance is never bliss, for knowledge is only understanding the properties of creatures, that we may select what is good and avoid what is prejudicial. The discovering these properties was, we are told, the occupation of Adam in Paradise, and is the occupation of philosophy on earth. That the transition from ignorance to knowledge may be attended with painful sensation is true. We are such creatures of habit, that it is painful to change even a bad habit. This may be easily seen in breaking any habit; the habit, for instance, of drinking fermented liquors. "If you mean to live long," said a physician to his patient," you must abstain from these fermented liquors." A week had scarcely elapsed ere they again met. "Well," asked the physician, "have you attended to my advice?" “I have, indeed, doctor, and, if I persevere, I certainly shall live longer than ever man existed on earth: I have abstained for seven days, and they have been longer than any seven years of my life." No doubt that the want of intellectual resources, and the torpor, both of body and mind, which is occasioned by the sudden loss of an accustomed stimulant, whether gin, or rum, or wine, will be painful, but it does not therefore follow that intoxication is better than sobriety. It is the same with respect to laughter from ignorance. If laughter cease as knowledge advances, it will be by the substitution of more exquisite joy. This is ever the case with the progress of knowledge; if it displaces one source of pleasure it is by the substitution of some more pure and unalloyed delight: "Pleasure that no repentance knows." If knowledge destroys sensuality, it gives us the tranquil pleasures of benevolence and affection. If it destroy turbulent mirth, it is by the substitution of tranquil and permanent joy, as described by Dr. South, as the joy of Adam in Paradise: "It was not," he says, "that which now often usurps this name: that trivial, vanishing, superficial thing, that only gilds the apprehension, and plays upon the surface of the soul. It was not the mere crackling of thorns, a sudden blaze of the spirits, the exultation of a tickled fancy, or a pleased appetite. Joy was then a masculine and a severe thing: the recreation of the judgment, the jubilee of reason. It was the result of a real good suitably applied. It commenced upon the solidities of truth, and the substance of fruition. It did not run out in voice, but filled the soul, as God does the universe, silently and without noise." LAUGHTER FROM INTELLIGENCE. Sailors laugh at a landsman, who at a slight motion of the boat seizes the side of it, or when he thinks that he shall die of sea-sickness. The unreasonable vexation of children is a common cause of laughter. Hartley says, "The most natural occasions of mirth and laughter in adults seem to be the little mistakes and follies of children, and the smaller inconveniences and improprieties which happen in conversation, and the daily occurrences of life, inasmuch as these pleasures are in a great measure occasioned or at least supported by the general pleasureable state, which our love and affection to our friends in general, and to children in particular, put the body and mind into; for this kind of mirth is always checked where we have a dislike; also where the mistake or inconsistency rises beyond a certain limit; for then it produces concern, confusion, and uneasiness.” In the Paradise Lost, Milton says:— If they list to try Conjecture, he his fabric of the heav'ns L Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move Mistakes of former astronomers, in the progress of this interesting science, might possibly be the cause of laughter in heedless minds; but it is a mistake to suppose that laughter excited by error can be seen in very superior minds: "A fool," says the preacher, "lifteth up his voice in laughter, but a wise man doth scarce smile a little." We read that "Jesus wept :" we do not read that he laughed. The Intelligence has the sudden feeling of superiority, with the consciousness that the uneasiness of the sufferer is from an imaginary cause. laughter from ignorance arises from not seeing the whole truth; the laughter from intelligence from seeing the whole, and seeing that the greatest part of the distress is imaginary. ON THE DISTRESS WHICH OCCASIONS LAUGHTER. There is another observation by Hobbes, which forms an important part of his theory. He says, "It is vain glory, and an argument of little worth, to think the infirmity of another sufficient |