He, therefore, has done well to concentrate on a theory of laughter, In doing s0, he goon crosses swords with the professional psychologists like McDougall, who, he says, work in the laboratory and in the ring or at the footlights. Testing it by the practice of clowns in their varying forms down to the id xed-nosed comedian of the halls, decides that there are six main ingredients in laughter, as fol-Jows:—
Falls, Blows, Surpri But he admits that his terminology Jargely covers the seven categories of MeDougall.
Having illustrated (with a wealth of pictures) these six qualities of the anatomy of mirth in examples of their broad application which we can test for ourselves, he plunges into the evolution ofthe _mirth-through the graduations of, township, saturnalia, monsters, Darlequn, Grimaldl, pantaloon, De: dura, the music circus, a Groc, devoting the last section to' pantomime from its possibilities. The clowns themsel one may be pretty certain, have no eh definite theories about their art. They simply inherit a tradition based on the experience of effects. But that makes Mr. Disher's analysis all the more interesting, especially when we can apply his tests for ourselves. He can do this most cectivaly in th if Greek, work hi an epi-Tae of his expetinen—=
He yodels. That "is "because his Biman a pate Let us not affirm too hastily that in writing a book on the psychology and folklore of witches Mr. Wick-war has performed a work of super. derogation. Only last year a smallholder in the south-west of England was charged with assaulting his neighbour, a woman, by scratch ing her on the arm with a pin, and with threatening to shoot her. He pleaded that she had "ill-wished him and bewitched his pig." He had, therefore, tried to remove the spell by the accredited expedient of drawing blood from the witch's arm. The magistrates in vain tried to convince him that there is no such thing as witchcraft, and sentenced hia toa month's imprisonment.
If there is one thing more than smother calculated to mal blush for his species, it is the behaviour of earlier regard to witchcraft, as summarized and exemplified in this book. Our sympathies go out in the first instance to the many thousands of innocent persons who here and on the continent of Europe, not men-New England, suffered persecu-torture, and death in its most atrocious forms. Yet we may remember that guilty persons perished too.
The Cult of Evil There still exists in the vilayet Mosul, no doubt with branches elsewhere, a clan of people known as Devil-Worshippers. Their deign presumably is to propitiate the powers of evil, and it is characterfstie that they conduct their wor-hip in underground chambers. Now it is easy to imagine that a personal Devil may be best propitiated by the performance of evil deeds; and the Devil-Worshippers of the Enst had their European counterpart in those Witches' "Covens,"i.., secret societies, whose members on ion undertook to please their master, the Devil, by every sort of unholy' deed. These "Covens" did exist, and their intention was evil. Their members, both male and female, worked themselves up into be-leving that they possessed mira-culeus powers, and in a credulous age their claims were readily accepted by the uninitiated,—who, owing to the action of mind upon body, presently began to believe selves bewitched by their abominable neighbours. In the ensuing persecutions, conducted partly by those in authority and partly out of private resentment or private malice, the innocent, unhappily, too often suffered with' the guilty.
The Per:
tence of Superstition With the 18th century a healthy scepticism as to the validity of Chief Justice jews bet humour fs of the constant strug ge guinst mishaps" which, ° though neartaches, "ae, hot "worth ples of joy. ye" the thee notes
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.