The sublime ideas connected with the sun, and the classical associations united with the name of Thetis, would not naturally have recalled the idea of so insignificant an animal, nor the changes produced in cooking it, and these connections violate the ordinary laws of association.
Emotions of the ludicrous are also produced by the sudden conception of some association in ideas which has never before been discovered. Thus, if ideas have been united in the mind on some other principle of association than that of resemblance, the sudden discovery of some unexpected resemblance will produce mirth. This is the foundation of the merriment produced by puns, where the ideas which the words represent would never have been united by the principles of association, but the union of these ideas is effected on the principle of resemblance between the sounds of the words which recall these ideas. When the mind suddenly perceives this unexpected foundation for the union of ideas that in all other respects are incongruous, an emotion of the ludicrous is produced. This is also the foundation of the pleasure which is felt in the use of alliteration in poetry, where a resemblance is discovered in the initial sound of words that recall ideas which in all other respects are incongruous.
All minds enjoy the excitement of this class of emotions, but some much more than others. Laughter, which is the effect of this class of emotions, is enjoyed more or less by all mankind, and is regarded as not only an agreeable, but as a healthful exercise.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE MORAL SUSCEPTIBILITIES.
A brief reference has been made to those susceptibilities which are the subject of this chapter. These, from their importance, are entitled to a more enlarged consideration.
Before proceeding, however, it is desirable to refer to the uses of the term moral, inasmuch as it often is employed with a vague comprehension of its signification. In its widest sense it signifies whatever relates to the regulation of mind by motives in distinction from those influences that produce involuntary results.
In a more limited sense, it signifies whatever relates to the regulation of mind in reference to the rules of right and wrong.
In the preceding pages it has been assumed that the grand object for which the Creator formed mind and all things is to produce the greatest possible happiness with the least possible evil, and that this design is so impressed on the human mind that the needless destruction of happiness is felt to be wrong—that is, contrary or unfitted to the design of all things; while all that tends to promote happiness is felt to be right, or consistent with this plan.
In order to a more clear view of this part of the subject, it is important to inquire as to the manner in which the ideas of right and wrong seem to originate.