Esculapius. Who can fail to discover in the lawyer, the characteristics of a stern cold-heartedness and cunning, which may be supposed to stop at nothing, where the interest of his client, and consequently his own, is concerned, provided only he is certain of legal indemnity? In him, too, we find the manifest expression of supercilious courtesy and specious affability, even when he is deeply engaged in threading out the mazy sinuosities of his occult and never-to-be-by-common-people-understood profession. Again, in the clergyman: how can we fail to observe-in some instances more than others—the curious compound of an illdisguised love of worldly enjoyments, united with an appearance of great sanctimoniousness, and a portion. of the asceticism of the cloister, as well as contempt of all sublunary good? Should it be objected here that these sketches are not average portraits, it must be remembered that those selected have been preferred for their points of illustration simply, without the design of disparaging any class, by an attempt at caricature.

But we should not omit, in enumerating the evidences of the validity of our theory, that we possess, in addition to this mass of incontestable demonstration, the records in its favor which are of divine origin: "The countenance of the wise," saith Solomon, "showeth wisdom; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth." And in Ecclesiastes we read; "A man may be known by his look, and one that hath understanding by his countenance, when thou meetest him."

Although only collateral to our subject, we close our chapter with the following rather fanciful conjecture of character by the several habits of walking:

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Observing persons move slow, their heads move alternately from side to side, while they occasionally stop and turn round. Careful persons lift their feet high, and place them down flat and firm. Sometimes they stoop down, pick up some little obstruction and place it quietly by the side of the way. Calculating persons generally walk with their hands in their pockets and their heads slightly inclined. Modest persons generally step softly, for fear of being observed. Timid persons often step off from a sidewalk, on meeting another, and always go around a stone instead of stepping over it. Careless persons are forever stubbing their toes. Lazy persons scrape about loosely, with their heels, and are first on one side of the walk, and then on the other. Very strong-minded persons have their toes directly in front of them, and have a kind of a stamp movement. Unstable persons walk fast and slow by turns. Venturous persons try all roads, frequently climb the fences instead of going through the gate, and never let down a bar. Cross persons are apt to hit their knees together. Good natured persons snap their thumb and finger every few steps. Fun-loving persons have a kind of a jig move

ment."

THE WITCHERY OF WIT.

"Ride si sapis."-MARTIAL.

I am persuaded that every time a man smiles-but much more so when he laughs-it adds something to this fragment of life.—STERNE.

66 LAUGH and grow fat," wrote Henry Giles; "if

you should grow exorbitantly fat by laughing, laughing still will keep you in healthy motion. It is a most admirable system of stationary gymnastics. Humor puzzles logic; who can give a reason for the folly that is in him? But could logic be applied to humor, and dare I describe the syllogism that would suit it, here is my description: its major should be good temper, its minor a good fancy, its middle term a good heart, and its conclusion a good laugh. Who can define humor? who can dissect it by analysis, or square it by the rules of logic? Who can methodize the vagaries of the mirthful brain? Who can make mathematics out of merriment? Who can postulate a pun? Who can square the circle of a joke? The calculus of cachinnation would be a pleasant kind of ciphering. Ratiocination is too hard and dry a process to have any association with a thing so glowing and so mellow as humor, which is, as Corporal Trim would say, the radical heart and moisture of the human mind. We

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have heard of Rabelais laughing in his easy-chair;' but who ever heard of Aristotle laughing in any chair, or Thomas Aquinas, or Emanuel Kant? Their very names suggest a nightmare of abstracts, concretes, syllogisms, enthymems, and categorical imperatives. Conceive, if you can, the recovery of appetite by exercise in polemics, and the improvement of complexion by a regimen of metaphysics; suppose a man's getting rosy on statistics, and plump on political economy."

"It is a good thing to laugh, at any rate, and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness."*

"O, glorious laughter! thou man-loving spirit, that for a time dost take the burden from the weary back— that dost lay salve to the weary feet, bruised and cut by flints and shards-that takest blood-baking melancholy by the nose, and makest it grin despite itself— that all the sorrows of the past, the doubts of the future, confoundest in the joy of the present—that makest man truly philosophic-conqueror of himself and care. What was talked of as the golden chain of Jove, was nothing but a succession of laughs, a chromatic scale of merriment, reaching from earth to Olympus." f

Some seem to think it a sin to smile, as if they found their pleasure in being always melancholy. They have no music in their souls, and therefore they indulge their dolorous croakings. They are such servile drudges to toil and fanaticism that they will not allow us to play upon words. The writers of classic times as well as + Douglas Jerrold.

* Dryden.

those of the Augustan age of our literature, were eminent wits. Dryden's dramatic works sparkle with many a good joke; and the same may be said of most of his contemporaries. But Swift was the magnus Apollo of the tribe of punsters-whose mind was an ever springing fountain of fun.

"Laughter is the language of infancy; the eloquence of childhood; and the power to laugh, is the power to be happy. It is becoming to all ages and conditions, and with the very few exceptions sacred to sorrow; an honest, hearty laugh, is always agreeable, and in order. It is an index of character, and betrays sooner than words."

How much of character lies in a laugh! It is, in fact, the cipher key, oftentimes, wherewith we decipher a man. As a late writer observes: "You know no man until you have heard him laugh-till you know how and when he will laugh. There are occasions-there are humors-when a man with whom we have been long familiar will quite startle us by breaking out into a laugh, which comes manifestly right from the heart, and yet which we had never heard before. And so, in many a heart a sweet angel slumbers unseen, until some happy moment awakens it.

"Laughing keeps off sickness, and has conquered as many diseases as ever pills have, and at much less expense; it makes flesh and keeps it in its place; it drives away weariness, and brings a dream of sweetness to the sleeper. It never is covetous; it accompanies charity, and is the handmaid of honesty; it disarms revenge; humbles pride, and is the talisman of contentment.