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The Olympian vice. - In spite of that philosopher who, as a genuine Englishman, tried to make laughing a defamation of character among all thinking men - "Laughter is a serious infirmity of human nature which every thinking man will strive to overcome" (Hobbes) - I would really allow myself to order the ranks of philosophers according to the rank of their laughter - right up to those who are capable of golden laughter.4 And assuming that the gods also practise philosophy, a fact which many conclusions have already driven me to - I don't doubt that in the process they know how to laugh in a superhuman and new way - and at the expense of all serious things! Gods delight in making fun: even where sacred actions are concerned, it seems they cannot stop laughing.
