Talking of the origin of language,--_Johnson_: "It must have come by
inspiration. A thousand, nay, a million of children could not invent a
language. While the organs are pliable, there is not understanding
enough to form a language; by the time that there is understanding
enough, the organs are become stiff. We know that after a certain age we
cannot learn to pronounce a new language. No foreigner who comes to
England when advanced in life, ever pronounces English tolerably well;
at least such instances are very rare. When I maintain that language
must have come by inspiration, I do not mean that inspiration is
required for rhetoric, and all the beauties of language; for when once
man has language, we can conceive that he may gradually form
modifications of it. I mean only that inspiration seems to me to be
necessary to give man the faculty of speech; to inform him that he may
have speech; which I think he could no more find out without inspiration
than cows or hogs would think of such a faculty."
--_Boswell's Life of Johnson._
1074
_Laughter._--To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been
granted to men before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is
looked upon as a miracle of precocity.
--_Pliny, the Elder._
1075
A good laugh is sunshine in a house.
--_Thackeray._
1076
John Dryden said,--"It is a good thing to laugh, and if a straw can
tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness, and of health."
1077
He who laughs overmuch may have an aching heart.
1078
The vulgar laugh and seldom smile; whereas well-bred people often smile
and seldom laugh.
1079
Laughing is not always a proof that the mind is at ease, or in
composure.
1080
Agree if possible, for the law is costly.
1081
If you've a good case, try to compromise;
If you've a bad one, take it into court.
1082
The law's delay, the insolence of office.
--_Shakespeare._
1083
Law is sometimes like a mouse-trap; easy to enter, but not easy to get
out of.
1084