SECT. XIII.
Excessive Gravity.
XLIII. Opportune cheerfulness, is the most savoury seasoner of conversation, and has so great a share in true urbanity, that some, as we observed before, have considered it as the most essential part of it; for, when introduced with propriety, it produces the most desirable effects, as it enlivens both the speakers and the auditors, conciliates their good-will to each other, and affords a relaxation to the mind, after it has been fatigued with study, or any serious occupation. It was on this account, that the moral gentiles, and even the christians also, placed cheerfulness among the number of moral virtues. Hear what Saint Thomas says on this head, in l. 2. quæst. 168. art. 2. after declaring cheerfulness to be a virtue, he describes the delight that results from it, not only to be useful, but necessary also for the purpose of giving ease and relaxation to the soul: Hujusmodi autem dicta, vel facta, in quibus non quæritur nisi delectatio animalis, vocantur ludicra vel jocosa. Et ideo necesse est talibus interdum uti, quasi ad quandam animæ quietem.
LXIV. Men who are always grave, may be termed a sort of entities between men and statues. Risibility being a property or quality inseparable from reason, he who denies himself the pleasure of laughing, degrades himself below the degree of a rational animal. Fools, are apt to esteem such people as men of sense, judgment, and mature understanding. But is a man’s deporting himself with the dryness and rigidity of a stock or a stone, a proof of his understanding? No brute is capable of laughing; and ought a property that is common to every brute, to be considered as a descriptive mark of, and the characteristic of a man of understanding? I look upon such a carriage, to bespeak an obstinate genius, and a man of a sullen temper. The antients were used to say, that all those who had ever entered the enchanted cavern of Trophonius, never laughed afterwards. If there is any truth in this story, which many people doubt, it is probable, that the infernal deity who was consulted in that cavern, instilled into those who consulted him this black diabolical melancholy.