ssion. It stimulates curiosity. Its laughter is
impersonal and has a social and spiritual effect. It acts like fresh
air, it clarifies the atmosphere of the mind and it enables one to see
things in a sharply defined light. It reveals character; it breaks up
a situation, reconstructs it, and so views life, interprets it. It
plays with life, it frees the spirit, and it invigorates the soul.

Speaking of humor, Thackeray, in "A Grumble About Christmas Books,"
1847, considered that the motto for humor should be the same as the
talisman worn by the Prioress in Chaucer:--

About hire arm a broche of gold ful shene,
On which was first ywritten a crowned _A_,
And after, _Amor vincit omnia_.

He continued: "The works of the real humorist always have this sacred
press-mark, I think. Try Shakespeare, first of all, Cervantes,
Addison, poor Dick Steele, and dear Harry Fielding, the tender and
delightful Jean Paul, Sterne, and Scott,--and Love is the humorist's
best characteristic and gives that charming ring to their laughter in
which all the good-natured world joins in chorus."

The humorous element for children appears in the repetition of phrases
such as we find in _Three Bears_, _Three Pigs_, and _Three
Billy-Goats_; in the contrast in the change of voice so noticeable
also in these three tales; in the contrast of ideas so conspicuous in
Kipling's _Elephant's Child_; and in the element of surprise so
evident when Johnny Cake is eaten by the Fox, or when Little Hen eats
the bread, or when Little Pig outwits the Wolf. The humorous element
for children also lies in the incongruous, the exaggerated, or in the
grotesque, so well displayed in Lear's _Nonsense Rhymes_, and much of
the charm of _Alice in Wonderland_. The humorous element must change
accordingly for older children, who become surprised less easily, and
whose tales therefore, in order to surprise, must have more clever
ideas and more subtle fancy.

_The Musicians of Bremen_ is a good type of humorous tale. It shows
all the elements of true humor. Its philosophy is healthy; it views
life as a whole and escapes tragedy by seeing the comic situation in
the midst of trouble. It is full of the social good-comradeship which
is a condition of humor. It possesses a suspense that is unusual, and
is a series of surprises with one grand surprise to the robbers at
their feast as its climax. The Donkey is a noble hero who breathes a
spirit of courage like that of