ult of a mechanism
set up in us by nature or, what is almost the same thing, by our long
acquaintance with social life. It goes off spontaneously and returns
tit for tat. It has no time to look where it hits. Laughter punishes
certain failing's somewhat as disease punishes certain forms of excess,
striking down some who are innocent and sparing some who are guilty,
aiming at a general result and incapable of dealing separately with
each individual case. And so it is with everything that comes to pass
by natural means instead of happening by conscious reflection. An
average of justice may show itself in the total result, though the
details, taken separately, often point to anything but justice.

In this sense, laughter cannot be absolutely just. Nor should it be
kind-hearted either. Its function is to intimidate by humiliating. Now,
it would not succeed in doing this, had not nature implanted for that
very purpose, even in the best of men, a spark of spitefulness or, at
all events, of mischief. Perhaps we had better not investigate this
point too closely, for we should not find anything very flattering to
ourselves. We should see that this movement of relaxation or expansion
is nothing but a prelude to laughter, that the laugher immediately
retires within himself, more self-assertive and conceited than ever,
and is evidently disposed to look upon another's personality as a
marionette of which he pulls the strings. In this presumptuousness we
speedily discern a degree of egoism and, behind this latter, something
less spontaneous and more bitter, the beginnings of a curious pessimism
which becomes the more pronounced as the laugher more closely analyses
his laughter.

Here, as elsewhere, nature has utilised evil with a view to good. It is
more especially the good that has engaged our attention throughout this
work. We have seen that the more society improves, the more plastic is
the adaptability it obtains from its members; while the greater the
tendency towards increasing stability below, the more does it force to
the surface the disturbing elements inseparable from so vast a bulk;
and thus laughter performs a useful function by emphasising the form of
these significant undulations. Such is also the truceless warfare of
the waves on the surface of the sea, whilst profound peace reigns in
the depths below. The billows clash and collide with each other, as
they strive to find their level. A fringe of snow-white foam, feath