incoln affords a notable
illustration of the saving power of humor. Reared in conditions of
hardship, his early life was essentially drab and prosaic. In
temperament he was serious, with an inclination toward the morbid, but
his sense of humor redeemed the situation. When clouds of gloom and
discouragement lowered in his mental sky, his keen sense of humor
penetrated the darkness and illumined his pathway. He was sometimes the
object of derision because men could not comprehend the depth and
bigness of his nature, and his humor was often accounted a weakness. But
the Gettysburg speech rendered further derision impossible and the
wondrous alchemy of that address transmuted criticism into willing
praise.

=Humor betokens deep feeling.=--Laughter and tears issue from the same
source, we are told, and the Gettysburg speech revealed a depth and a
quality of tenderness that men had not, before, been able to recognize
or appreciate. The absence of a sense of humor betokens shallowness in
that it reveals an inability to feel deeply. People who feel deeply
often laugh in order to forestall tears. Lincoln was a great soul and
his sense of humor was one element of his greatness. His apt stories and
his humorous personal experiences often carried off a situation where
cold logic would have failed. Whether his sense of humor was a gift or
an acquisition, it certainly served the nation well and gave to us all
an example that is worthy of emulation.

=The teacher of English.=--Many teachers could, with profit to
themselves and their schools, sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, not
only to learn English but also to imbibe his sense of humor. Nothing is
more pathetic than the efforts of a teacher who lacks a sense of humor
to teach a bit of English that abounds in humor, by means of the textual
notes. The notes are bad enough, in all conscience, but the teacher's
lack of humor piles Ossa upon Pelion. The solemnity that pervades such
mechanical teaching would be farcical were it not so pathetic. The
teacher who cannot indulge in a hearty, honest, ringing laugh with her
pupils in situations that are really humorous is certain to be laughed
at by her pupils. In her work, as in Lincoln's, a sense of humor will
often save the day.

=Mark Twain as philosopher.=--Mark Twain will ever be accounted a very
prince of humorists, and so he was. But he was more than that. Upon the
current of his humor were carried precious cargoes of the philosoph