There is certainly no harm in a good laugh, and truly it is
not forbidden to a jester to speak the truth. Yet the laugh
must have the right ring to it. Socrates laughed, and Voltaire
laughed, as Thomas Erskine remarked; yet, as he said, what a
difference in the laugh of the two! And the man who laughs all
the time will not know what to do when the hour of weeping
comes. The laughing philosopher is a very shallow philosopher or
else a very shallow laugher. An awful gravity which comes from
a man taking himself too seriously is a thing which irresistibly
invites a tweaking of the nose; but a ridicule which beats and
splashes on all sides and at all times, fixing its pasquinades
nightly on the statues of our national heroes, smirking in the
presence of names and thoughts that ought to be shrouded in
sacred reverence, is one of the things that no right soul can
abide.--_Christian Union._
(1759)