[70] Many fail to see a joke when it is gravely propounded in print, who
would at once recognise it as such, were it uttered verbally, with
however serious a countenance. Possibly this is due to the necessary
absence in the printed account of the indications by which we recognise
that a speaker is jesting--as a certain expression of countenance, or a
certain intonation of voice, by which the grave utterer of a spoken jest
conveys his real meaning. In a paper which recently appeared in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, Mr. Foster (Thomas of that ilk) propounded very
gravely the theory that our Nursery Rhymes have in reality had their
origin in Nature Myths. He explained, for instance, that the rhymes
relating to Little Jack Horner were originally descriptive of sunrise in
winter: Little Jack is the sun in winter, the Christmas pie is the
cloud-covered sky; the thumb represents the sun's first ray piercing
through the clouds; and Jack's rejoicing means the brightness of full
sunlight. So also the rhymes beginning Hey Diddle Diddle are shown to be
of deep and solemn import, all in manifest burlesque of some recent
extravagant interpretations of certain ancient stories by Goldziher,
Steinthal, and others. Yet this fun was seriously criticized by more
than half the critics, by some approvingly, by some otherwise.
[71] For a full account of this clever hoax the reader is referred to my
"Myths and Marvels of Astronomy."
[72] The most curious are given in the ninth essay of my work referred
to in the preceding note.
[73] Few probably are aware how long some animals may remain without
breathing and yet survive. Kittens and puppies have been brought to life
after being immersed in water for nearly three-quarters of an hour.
[74] Objection has been taken to the italicized words in the following
passage from "No Thoroughfare" (one of the parts certainly written by
Dickens and not by Wilkie Collins): "The cry came up: 'His heart still
beats against mine. I warm him in my arms. I have cast off the rope, for
the ice melts under us, and the rope would separate me from him; but I
am not afraid.' ... The cry came up, 'We are sinking lower, but his
heart still beats against mine.' ... The cry came up, 'We are sinking
still, and we are deadly cold. _His heart no longer beats against mine._
Let no one come down to add to our weight. Lower the rope only.' ... The
cry came up with a deathly silence, 'Raise! softly!' ... She broke from
them all and sank over him on his litter, with both her loving hands
upon _the heart that stood still_." It has been supposed that Dickens
wilfully departed here from truth, in order to leave the impression on
the reader that Vendale was assuredly dead. That he wished to convey
this impression is obvious. He often showed similar care to remove, if
possible, all hope from the anxious reader's mind (markedly so in his
latest and unfinished work, where nevertheless any one well acquainted
with Dickens's manner knows not only that Drood is alive, but that
disguised as Datchery he was to have watched Jasper to the end). But in
reality, it has happened more than once that persons have been restored
to life who have been found in snow-drifts not merely reduced to
complete insensibility, but without any recognisable heart-beat. Dickens
had probably heard of such cases when in Switzerland.
[75] Dr. Richardson will certainly excite the contempt of the northern
professor who rebuked me recently for speaking of heat when I should
have said temperature. "An atmosphere two degrees below freezing-point"
is an expression as inadmissible, if we must be punctilious in such
matters, as the expressions "blood-heat," "a heat of ten degrees," and
so forth. Possibly, however, it is not desirable to be punctilious when
there is no possibility of being misunderstood, especially as it may be
noticed (the Edinburgh professor has often afforded striking
illustrations of the fact by errors of his own) that too great an effort
to be punctilious often results in very remarkable incorrectness of
expression.