Humor would seem to depend, according to some, upon the association of ideas or circumstances that have no true relation to each other, as if they actually possessed a natural relationship. For this reason a cat or a cow dressed in coat and trousers provokes laughter, or a village bully described as a proud monarch causes a smile. An unexpected answer made as seriously as if it were appropriate is one of the commoner examples of the ludicrous. It is much for the same reason that actual misfortune may appear laughable, if the element of suffering is suppressed, as in Joel Chandler Harris's "Uncle Remus" stories, or Gilbert's "Yarn of the Nancy Bell." Its very subtlety limits the appeal of humor. "One man's meat is another man's poison" applies more closely to this division of authorship than to any other. What tickles the fancy of one person, and more especially, one nation, may not afford even passing amusement to another. Englishmen find our comic papers dull, while many Americans see little to laugh at in "Punch."
Barham
Browne
Carroll
Cervantes
Cowper
Gilbert
Harris
Harte
Holmes
Hood
Hope
Irving
Jerrold
Jonson
Lamb
Lowell
Richter
Sheridan
Sterne
Swift
FOR THE CHILDREN
The foundations of good taste are best laid in childhood. Fairy tales, adventures, and all sorts of stories for children may be well designed and well written, or the opposite, just as much as books for older people. Choose your children's books as you choose their food; take care they get no trash, arrange a tempting diet of wholesome nourishment for their minds. The authors listed below wrote as carefully and thoughtfully for little folks as when they wrote for grown-ups. Andersen devoted his life to authorship for children; the Grimm brothers made a scientific study of folk-lore and fairy tales throughout the German empire, collecting the stories told by the firesides in each district. Carroll, Hawthorne, Kingsley, and many others put their best efforts into books which are unquestioned examples of great literature and yet were purposed entirely for youth. There is no occasion for young people to ruin their taste and their appreciation with ill-written rubbish.
Æsop
Andersen
Arabian Nights
Brown
Fouqué
Grimm
Hughes
Irving