he absence of a due sense of humour has been the cause of
some of our worst disasters. All rational people know that what has done
most to depress and discount religion is ecclesiasticism. The spirit of
ecclesiasticism is the spirit that confuses proportions, that loves what
is unimportant, that hides great principles under minute rules, that
sacrifices simplicity to complexity, that adores dogma, and definition,
and labels of every kind, that substitutes the letter for the spirit.
The greatest misfortune that can befall religion is that it should
become logical, that it should evolve a reasoned system from
insufficient data; but humour abhors logic, and cannot pin its faith on
insecure deductions. The heaviest burden which religion can have to
bear is the burden of tradition, and humour is the determined foe of
everything that is conventional and traditional. The Pharisaical spirit
loves precedent and authority; the humorous spirit loves all that is
swift and shifting and subversive and fresh. One of the reasons why the
orthodox heaven is so depressing a place is that there seems to be no
room in it for laughter; it is all harmony and meekness, sanctified by
nothing but the gravest of smiles. What wonder that humanity is dejected
at the thought of an existence from which all possibility of innocent
absurdity and kindly mirth is subtracted--the only things which have
persistently lightened and beguiled the earthly pilgrimage! That is why
the death of a humorous person has so deep an added tinge of melancholy
about it, because it is apt to seem indecorous to think of what was his
most congenial and charming trait still finding scope for its exercise.
We are never likely to be able to tolerate the thought of Death, while
we continue to think of it as a thing which will rob humanity of some of
its richest and most salient characteristics.

Even the ghastly humour of Milton is a shade better than this. It will
be remembered that he makes the archangel say to Adam that astronomy
has been made by the Creator a complicated subject, in order that the
bewilderment of scientific men may be a matter of entertainment to Him!

"He His fabric of the Heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide."

Or, again, we may remember the harsh contortions of dry cachinnation
indulged in by the rebel spirits, when they have succeeded in toppling
over with their art