A LITTLE girl was one day reading the History of England with her governess, and coming to the statement that Henry I. never laughed again after the death of his son, she looked up and said, "What did he do when he was tickled ?" The question was a philosophical one, but it discovers the youth of the querist. She had not yet grown to an age to appreciate the moral power of wit, and only thought of that cause of laughter which came home to herself. If Henry himself could have heard such a question, it might have brought a smile at least over his troubled features, for there is something irresistibly risible in the thought of any one daring to tickle a great king.

We have placed at the head of this article the titles of the earliest and latest jest-books, and although the last-issued one is by far the more voluminous of the two, we do not think it will gain in com

parison with its predecessor. We must confess to feeling some disappointment in the contents of the "New London JestBook," and do not quite understand the reason for its publication. When we saw Mr. Hazlitt's name attached to a collection of " Choice Jests," we expected to find a book somewhat of the character of Mr. Thoms's admirable "Anecdotes and Traditions," published for the Camden Society, in which an attempt would be made to trace the history of the jokes to their sources, and show how they illustrate the manners of the people. Something of this kind we had reason to expect from the editor of the "Shakspeare Jest-Books," but we find nothing to distinguish the new work from the hundreds that have preceded it. Among the faults we have noticed are the following. The oldest jokes are told as if they occurred yesterday, and the same story is variously related in different parts of the book. Some of the jokes also are spoiled; thus the story of the old woman who, while passing a sentry at.

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A LITTLE girl was one day reading the History of England with her governess, and coming to the statement that Henry I. never laughed again after the death of his son, she looked up and said, "What did he do when he was tickled ?" The question was a philosophical one, but it discovers the youth of the querist. She had not yet grown to an age to appreciate the moral power of wit, and only thought of that cause of laughter which came home to herself. If Henry himself could have heard such a question, it might have brought a smile at least over his troubled features, for there is something irresistibly risible in the thought of any one daring to tickle a great king.

We have placed at the head of this article the titles of the earliest and latest jest-books, and although the last-issued one is by far the more voluminous of the two, we do not think it will gain in com

parison with its predecessor. We must confess to feeling some disappointment in the contents of the "New London JestBook," and do not quite understand the reason for its publication. When we saw Mr. Hazlitt's name attached to a collection of "Choice Jests," we expected to find a book somewhat of the character of Mr. Thoms's admirable "Anecdotes and Traditions," published for the Camden Society, in which an attempt would be made to trace the history of the jokes to their sources, and show how they illustrate the manners of the people. Something of this kind we had reason to expect from the editor of the "Shakspeare Jest-Books," but we find nothing to distinguish the new work from the hundreds that have preceded it. Among the faults we have noticed are the following. The oldest jokes are told as if they occurred yesterday, and the same story is variously related in different parts of the book. Some of the jokes also are spoiled; thus the story of the old. woman who, while passing a sentry at.

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the time of relieving guard, answered his "Who goes there?" by calling out, "It's only me, soldier, don't be afeard," is maimed, and the impossible words, "It's I, patrol, don't be afraid," are substituted for her natural speech. Dr. Johnson's answer to the lady who played a difficult piece of music to him, that he wished it had been impossible, is here attributed to the friend of a vain but indifferent performer on the violin. Again, the story of Paley and his well-known joke that the verse "There is a lad here that hath five barley-loaves and two small fishes, but what are these among so many?" would make a good text for a sermon during Pitt's visit to Cambridge, is here said to have been actually preached by a chaplain. Why will compilers continue to make up their books from one another with the introduction of little or no new matter? We venture to say that the memoir of Sydney Smith contains more good wit than is to be found in all the jest-books put together. Mr. Hazlitt has introduced a few witticisms of Leigh Hunt, Douglas Jerrold, and Sydney Smith, but the major part of his volume is filled with jokes that are as old as the hills.

Hierocles, who lived in the sixth century, collected twenty-one jests under the general title of the Pedants, and in this fossil jest-book we find jokes that have been handed down through succeeding collections, and have become old and familiar friends. Among these ancient jests is the account of the man who for fear of drowning determined not to enter the water until he was master of the art of swimming; of the man who complained that his horse died just as he had taught it to live without food; of the philosopher who carried a stone about with him as a specimen of his house; of one who stood before a glass with his eyes shut, to see how he looked when he was asleep; of the man who bought a crow, to see whether it would live two hundred years; and of one who went into a boat on horseback, because he was in a hurry. Here we find the ever new story of a man who, meeting a friend, asked whether it was he or his brother, who was buried; and the blundering excuse of the person who, not having attended to the request of a friend, said when he met him, "I am sorry I never received the letter which you wrote to me about the books." The Rev. Mr. Hartley, of Phila

delphia, must, we should imagine, have come fresh from the perusal of Hierocles when he forwarded to M. Thiers last year one of the original bricks of Independence Hall in that city, " with the earnest prayer that the legislators of beautiful France may derive from it such an inspiration as shall lead them to erect a republic, whose dignity, justice, and purity shall be the admiration of our age, and which shall prove a model for other nations in securing the rights and liberties of their people."

We are unable to understand why it is that some one has not systematized our treasures of wit, and given life and form to bare jests, making them show us somewhat of the inner life of man, and of his characteristic manners and feelings. Dean Ramsay has collected a large number of stories of Scotch character, and arranged them so as to illustrate the past and passing manners of his country. In consequence his book has a double use, for it is valuable historically considered, and is also by far the best jest-book in the language.

Most writers seem to consider the collecting of jests as a derogatory office; and doubtless it is so, when the work is undertaken as it usually is; but surely we need not be ashamed to do what was done by Julius Cæsar, Tacitus, and Lord Bacon. There are few greater mistakes than the supposition that wit is frivolous. Most great men, even if not witty themselves, have been anxious to listen to that which could break the thread of their serious thoughts; they have been eager to hear and see whatever would make them laugh. Philip of Macedon, and Sylla, the general of the Romans, were both fond of jokes; and a priest writing of the last illness of Queen Elizabeth says, "She can not attend to any discourse of Government and State, but delighteth to hear some of the Hundred Merry Tales, and such like, and to such is very attentive." We know that neither of these was a frivolous person. Proverbs have been generally recognized as affording a wide field of illustration in the study of human nature, but jests have been too little regarded in the same study, yet much may be learnt of the manners of a people from the study of its jokes.

We shall endeavor in the space at our disposal to give a hasty glance at some of the chief divisions of Wit and Humor, illustrating them with such jests as come to hand. Many of these will be old, but if