"With what prudence does the Son of Sirach caution us in the choice of
our friends. And with what strokes of Nature, (I could almost say of
Humour,) has he described the behavior of a treacherous and
self-interested friend!"--_Addison._
"The history of the ancient Hebrews," says George Eliot, "gives the idea
of a people who went about their business and their pleasures as gravely
as a society of beavers; the smile and laugh are often mentioned
metaphorically; but the smile is one of complacency, the laugh of scorn."
Against the authority of so illustrious a name, the writer of these pages
confesses a somewhat different impression. It is difficult to believe that
such sentiments as the following could have arisen among a people whose
only smile was that of complacency, whose only laughter that of scorn:
"He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast."
"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance."
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."
"Go thy way; eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry
heart."
"The voice of mirth," "the voice of gladness" are phrases of frequent
occurrence. The ancient Hebrews believed that there was a "time to laugh"
as well as a "time to weep." Grave and serious as they were, there must
have been in them, after all, something sunny and pleasant. They did not
find the heavens forever black and the earth forever cheerless.
When we turn to the historical and biographical portions of Scripture, we
find here and there a bit of quaintness and drollery in pictures of life
and delineations of character that must have brought to the faces of those
who read them or heard them smiles other than those of complacency; that
must have been enjoyed with laughter other than that of scorn.
Mr. Shorthouse says, "Nature and humor do not lie far apart; the source
and spring of humor is human life." "The essence of humor," Carlyle
remarks, "is sensibility; warm, tender fellow-feeling with all forms of
existence." "The man of humor," writes another distinguished critic,
"seeing at one glance the majestic and the mean, the serious and the
laughable; indeed, interpreting what is little or ridiculous by light
derived from its opposite idea, delineates character as he finds it in
life, without any impertinent intrusion of his own indignation or
approval."
The writers of the Bible sketched manners and traits as they found them.
Their pencils were faithful to nature. They reported what they saw. The
features which provoke the smile, as well as those which move us to
admire, condemn or weep, are pictured on their canvas. They had an eye for
the ludicrous side of life, as well as for its more sober aspects. So,
genial is much of their--often unconscious--humor, so far removed from
bitterness or scorn, that it should seem as if Addison and Irving might
have drawn some of their inspiration from these old Hebrews.
In this chapter we shall give some illustrations from their sketches of
character.