There are some famous books which are the delight of scholars but
hardly at all known to the amateur reader. Of such, we think of Thomas
Hobbes’ _Leviathan_. It is so nobly sagacious and entertaining that
with a little trouble spent on rephrasing his stuff and giving it
snappy captions we could probably sell it to a long chain of newspapers
and enter into competition with the Syndicated Spinozas who prey upon
the public appetite for aphorisms.
Hobbes’ wisdom is of the shrewd and nipping sort. If we had to choose
but one passage, to show a seventeenth-century mind at its best, we
should pluck his remarks on Laughter--famous indeed, but probably
little known to casual readers. See the clear stream of the mind
flowing in a channel of granite prose:--
Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called
laughter; and is caused either by some sudden act of their own
that pleaseth them, or by the apprehension of some deformed
thing in another by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud
themselves. And it is incident most to them that are conscious
of the fewest abilities in themselves: who are forced to keep
themselves in their own favour by observing the imperfections
of other men. And therefore much laughter at the defects of
others is a sign of pusillanimity. For of great minds one of
the proper works is to help and free others from scorn, and
compare themselves only with the most able.
On the contrary, sudden dejection is the passion that causeth
weeping, and is caused by such accidents as suddenly take
away some vehement hope or some prop of their power; and
they are most subject to it that rely principally on helps
external, such as are women and children. Therefore some weep
for the loss of friends, others for their unkindness, others
for the sudden stop made to their thoughts of revenge by
reconciliation. But in all cases, both laughter and weeping are
sudden motions, custom taking them both away. For no man laughs
at old jests, or weeps for an old calamity.
The vain-glory which consisteth in the feigning or supposing of
abilities in ourselves which we know are not is most incident
to young men, and nourished by the histories or fictions
of gallant persons, and is corrected oftentimes by age and
employment.