he
illusive, and the unexpected." It is a conclusive reply, because we know
that it is just as essential to achievement in the finest of the Fine
Arts,--the art of living, as in every other form of Art, to recognize
that the inrush of discord is for the final issue of harmony; that only
through our ability to recognize illusion shall we come to know reality;
that only through sensitiveness to the incongruous shall we develop a
true sense of the fitness of things; that only frank enjoyment can
disarm imperfection and find satisfaction in the perfect. So let us not
hesitate to do all we can to cultivate a quality which Thackeray defines
as a mixture of love and wit; to which Erasmus ascribes such desirable
characteristics as good temper and insight into human nature; and for
one grade of which, in addition to all its other qualities, Mr. Crothers
claims "that it can proceed only from a mind free from any taint of
morbidness."

If then we conclude that it is not only safe, but possible and
desirable, to cultivate a sense of humor, how shall we set about it? To
answer you, as to one way at least, and that a way of interpretation,
Mr. Crothers "is left alive," not only to furnish new material for the
exercise of the sense, but to point a gently reminding finger toward the
immortal sources of good humor,--"Chaucer and Cervantes and Montaigne;
Shakespeare and Bacon and Fielding and Addison; Goldsmith, Charles Lamb,
and Walter Scott, and in our own country, Irving and Dr. Holmes and
James Russell Lowell." Whatever period of time your schedule grants to
this phase of the work should be dedicated to a closer acquaintance with
the flavor and atmosphere of these great-hearted humorists in their most
genial moments. Let us also heed Mr. Crothers' warning against the humor
of the Dean Swifts which "would be so irresistible were it not bad
humor." Let us avoid more intimate acquaintance with the broad variety
furnished by the Mark Twains and Mr. Dooleys, which may be legitimately
classed as "good humor," but which is so obvious as to be little
conducive to that mental alertness and power of discrimination which we
aim to acquire through this study. Instead, let us seek the gracious
company of William Dean Howells in the whimsical mood he so often
induces.

Accepting, then, as a distinguishing characteristic of the humor we
desire to cultivate, ability to enjoy the incongruous, the illusive, and
the unexpected, let us look to a maste