great heart, perhaps, but the chances are that it is a diseased one. His sensitiveness is in excess; it is morbid. He has forgotten how to laugh! He enjoys not life! The sweet of the honey he has gathered does not repay him for the smart of the stings it has cost him, "Souvent de tous nos maux la raison est le pire-Reason is often the worst of all our evils," ejaculated Boileau, in the despairing tone of the nerve-excited and brain-tortured student-old before his time.

There is more variety in laughing than in almost any other human operation. One man takes it by giggles and cautious cachinnations, while another flies at it eagerly, and, full-mouthed, bellows forth volumes of merry sound, till his sides ache. One simpers, another guffaws, while a third bursts out in a huge horse-laugh, like the blast of an ophicleide. And there is the silver-ringing, music laugh of the beautiful girl, so full of happiness and bright-heartedness; and the unsophisticated laughter of the child—a long, merry, outburst of irrepressible mirth.

face and diaphragm only, but of the whole man, from head to heel."

Commend us, above all things, to the laugh of the jolly, fat man. It is a picture of health, pleasure, and hilarity. The act is thoroughly in keeping with his nature. He laughs because he is fat, and is fat because he laughs. Laugh and grow fat" is exemplified in him. A laugh on the face of such a man is like sunshine on a landscape. Look at him for a moment; how hearty and fullformed his laugh is! Not a giggle, or cackle, or snigger, but a well-developed bond fide laugh. He laughs as if it were a duty-not a pastime. He feels that his mouth, throat, and diaphragm were formed to laugh, and he laughs with his whole heart. He does not do the thing by pinches, as a man takes snuff, but regularly and designedly, and in quantity. He opens his mouth as if he were in earnest, and shows the teeth that have masticated up that good humor for him; revealing the throat through which (facilis descensus) so many good things have coursed to feed fat that sturdy laugh of his. How the operation throws the blood into his face; for the best of all cosmetics is laughter, painting the cheeks (as drink paints the nose) in glowing carmine. How laughing clears his throat from canker and ill-humor! He puts his hands on his sides in a business-like manner,

hold

Some men laugh in the most comical manner; one brings only a small part of the face into action-the mouth and eyelids principally, the rest lying fallow; while another sets his whole face and body in motion,-sometimes he ducks down and explodes, or he casts his head back, and wags it to-and-fro, like a mandarin in a tea-ing his substance together, and he laughs till shop window,- -or he stuffs his hands into his whole nature is clarified, and made rehis breeches pockets, twists his knees in- freshing and brisk. Let him laugh on, good wards, shuts his eyes, shows his ivory, and man! works his body backwards and forwards like a pendulum, all the while "giving mouth;" or he wriggles himself convulsively about, kicks outwards, bobs up and down in his seat, and laughs till his face is like a wet cloak ill laid up. Take, for example, the laugh of Teufelsdröck, as described by Carlyle :-" Paul, in his serious way, was giving one of those inimitable Extraharangues,' and, as it chanced, on the proposal for Cast-metal King: gradually a light kindled in our Professor's eyes and face, a beaming, mantling, loveliest light; through those murky features, a radiant, ever young Apollo, looked; and he burst forth like the neighing of all Tattersall's-tears streaming down his cheeks, pipe held aloft, foot clutched into the air,-loud, long-continuing, uncontrollable; a laugh, not of the

Seriously speaking, a good laugh is a most healthy operation, the rationale of which is well known to physiologists. It accelerates circulation, and forces the venous blood through the lungs, thus promoting nutrition by the mere physical act, not to speak of the grateful stimulus which is imparted to the entire nervous system. For,

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a merry heart," saith Solomon," doeth good like a medicine." We know a wise man, who makes a point of going regularly to all the Christmas pantomimes, for the sake of a jolly laugh, and he quotes the clown as his best physician. Indeed, Celsus, one of the oldest writers on medicine, recommended comic representations to his patients as a cure for indigestion; and he was, doubtless, justified by the results of his prescription.

waked by this invisible agent, none but the initiated can know.

For six weeks previous, the shocks had been so frequent as to excite some apprehension. A heavy one had been felt in December that cracked many a wall. But it was on the second instant that the dy

For the same reason, singing is a most healthy exercise, strengthening and invigorating the lungs, and promoting nutrition by healthfully accelerating the circulation. Professional singers are generally long-lived, when temperate, and are rarely affected by consumption or diseases of the lungs. Every one must have remarked the extra-namic heaving came in its greatest power, ordinary health and powers of Brahamthat old veteran, who has charmed the ears of English audiences for more than half a century. Pasta, Catalani, Mara, Palestrina, Tesi, Davies, and other great singers, all lived to a very old age.

The exercise of reading aloud is equally beneficial, and for similar reasons. It exercises the lungs, improves the action of the muscles of the chest, and promotes circulation and nutrition. Thus teachers, as a class, are proverbially long-lived. Ministers of religion, and public lecturers, who are in the practice of speaking regularly, are longer-lived than the members of the other professions. Cuvier was of a very delicate organization, and was threatened with consumption, when he was fortunately appointed to a professorship, which required him to speak for some hours daily. To this circumstance he himself attributed his recovery, and the establishment of his health: he survived to a great age. The appointment of Dr. Thomas Brown to a lectureship in the University of Edinburgh is also understood to have been the means of considerably prolonging the career of that brilliant writer. It is also a well-known fact, that the average longevity of women is considerably higher than that of man; but it might be considered ungallant, and, perhaps, would be unfair, were we to attribute such superior longevity entirely to the circumstance aforesaid.

From the "Courier and Fnquirer."

EARTHQUAKE IN VALPARAISO.
April 22, 1851.

THE month now closing has been an eventful one in this Republic. On the 2d instant, at a very early hour in the morning, the inhabitants of this city and Santiago and the smaller towns, were hurried from their beds by the fearful rocking of the earthquake. How dreadful it is thus to be

at forty-one minutes after six o'clock, a. M. The majority of the inhabitants were in their beds, but they were not there long. On such occasions there is a world of the laughable mixed up with another world of the terrible.

Perhaps your readers will obtain a better idea from the description of what one person did and saw, than from a description in more general terms;-so I will tell of my own experience in the matter. I waked, finding the roof, ceiling, and walls of my dwelling, which was of one story, rattling and cracking as if some giant had laid hold on it to shake it into fragments. As the roof was made of tiles, the usual method here, and therefore heavy, my first thought was to escape from it to an open space in front of it. Often, in such cases, from the rocking of the house, the doors are bound and cannot be opened at all. Happily this was not so in our case, and, with my wife close at my side, I flew from my castle. The tiles were rattling down from the eaves of the roof. Our home seemed to be the object of our greatest dread. Soon we were at a safe distance and watched the scene. The most marked atmospheric stillness reigned. Not a breath of air stirred; but all the solid earth seemed in disturbance, as if rattling to pieces. The earth moved so as to make it difficult to retain one's balance on his feet. The shock lasted more than sixty seconds. The houses could be seen swaying this way and that like the

branches of trees.

As soon as these oscillations had ceased, I returned to my house. How sad the change! But a few months before, it had been papered anew, now the walls were the picture of desolation. The tiled roof had more the appearance of what printers call pi than any other thing. The top portion of the chimney had been wrenched about on its base. Furniture, beds, carpets, &c., were covered with sand and lumps of fallen plastering. As we were walking about to

see the injury done, the earth began again to move. We sat down to breakfast-we were startled then.

I went now into the street. There a similar scene presented itself, only on a scale much more extensive. One house near mine was down upon the ground. In another, men had broken limbs as they hastened down the falling stairs. As one lady left her bed the chimney fell down into it. I found an English family seated at their door, their chimney had made its entrance into the drawing-room, while the observatory had gone down into the yard; the children, like affrighted lambs, and the mother feeling her own and their danger too, were afraid to ascend the stairs again.

The streets were fairly filled with people. There was but one subject of conversation. During the intervals between the shocks persons would gather a little courage and approach their doors from the middle of the street, and then, as the cry trembla! sounded again, back they would rush once more. Multitudes passed thus the entire day in the streets.

lieve, were lost, though several suffered from broken limbs. Santiago suffered about in equal measure with this city. The churches, government house, and similar large buildings were greatly damaged. Villages and towns suffered; Renca was thrown down, Casa Blanca nearly destroyed, and Curacavi also.

Rain followed on the fourth of April, and because of the injury sustained by the roofs, the damage to property, furniture and houses, was nearly doubled.

North and south of this the shock was not felt to be violent.

The terror of the people during the days of the shock was intense. The customhouse for one day was closed altogether, and all business suspended. Tents were pitched in the public square, as well as on the hills. But now, since nothing has been felt for a week or more, we trust the danger is averted. It is twenty-nine years since such an earthquake has been experienced here.

From the "Home Journal,"

HOW TO CHOOSE FURNITURE.

The night at last came, and as its dark curtains were drawn down over us, the danger seemed increased. It caused such an indescribable sense of loneliness and helplessness. The tremblings had continued the A HOME in the country requires furniture whole day through, with scarcely an inter- in its way more difficult to select than to val of more than half an hour at any time, choose between this and that costly article, and, though they caused no harm, no one offered by Baudoine or others, for town use. knew but a worse than the worst was yet We venture to doubt whether, as yet, the to be experienced. Many an eye did not true ideal has been nearly reached in counclose in sleep that whole night; indeed try furniture. The painted ware, that finds many persons did not go to their beds at favor with many, has some grave objections all, while others spread them in the streets. to its universal use, whilst the great temptaEven at daybreak the street seemed filled tion with which its makers are assailed, to with people. I went to my bed and slept, lavish gilding and decoration, has rendered, but was awakened several times by repeat-in too many instances, this style of furniture gaudy and bizarre. The true way to treat such furniture seems to us, not in imitation of rosewood, buhl, or inlaid work, nor by gilding or bronzing, but by giving the set s quiet, smooth color, with the parts picked out in flat, carefully contrasted or harmo nized lines of other colors; here and there medallions may be advantageously introduced, and the projecting knobs, scroll-work, feet, etc., may be enriched with more elaborately finished decoration, in which, however, an effect more truly in unison with good taste may be secured by carefully avoiding

ed shocks. But they were growing less strong, and the giant power was again lulling | itself to rest. For ten days shocks were frequent. Since the second instant we have experienced about seventy-five in all.

The damage done to property was not, at the least, below a million of dollars. The appearance of the streets has now been improved, but at first it was very desolate. There was hardly a house in the section called the Almendral that was not shattered or defaced. Roofs were ruined, walls cracked, and others fallen. Few or no lives, I be

all shading, or, as it is technically called, | engravings hung up, or in portfolio stands "relief." about the room, an easy chair, and some vases of cut flowers, can readily be made as cosy a place as any heart could desire, without seeking the furniture away from the store that country handicraft can supply.

of paper of another color may be placed of the Temple Block.” upon it in accordance with some pre-arranged design, and by using narrow lines of strips of brightly colored papers, perhaps a landscape or floral medallion here and there, and some other little embellishment in the corners, panels and compartments may be made upon the wall, and a very beautiful and durable effect (the paper bearing scrubbing) obtained at a very small cost. We will recur to this subject at some future time. G. W.