It is wise to laugh, and Joe Miller is right when he says
that the gravest beast is an ass, and the gravest man is a
fool. This opinion of the famous jester is in accord with
Plato, who is reported to have remarked to his friends, when
their social enjoyment was occasionally intruded upon by the
approach of some sedate wiseacre, “Silence, my friends, let us
be wise now, for a fool is coming.” Other notable characters,
if not themselves witty, have sought relief from the strain of
serious employment by a laugh and innocent merriment. Philip
of Macedon, Sylla, the Roman dictator, Queen Elizabeth, and
our own Abraham Lincoln, keenly enjoyed a good joke, while
Julius Cæsar, Tacitus, Erasmus, and Lord Bacon compiled
jest-books. So there is high authority for jesting, and a jest
is merely petrified laughter--a laugh congealed into words,
so as to be passed from mouth to mouth and handed down to
further generations.--EDMUND KIRKE, _North American
Review_.
(1684)