The metamorphosis, or golden ass, and philosophical works, of Apuleius [A. on the God of Socrates; A. on the habitude of the doctrines of Plato] / Translated from the original Latin, by Thomas Taylor.

  • Apuleius
Date:
1822
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The metamorphosis, or golden ass, and philosophical works, of Apuleius [A. on the God of Socrates; A. on the habitude of the doctrines of Plato] / Translated from the original Latin, by Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    render him more pleasing to us ; and I wish you could devise any thing, from your own proper pleasantry, of a joyous nature, in honour of the God, in order that we might, in a greater and more perfect degree, please so great a divinity. It is well, I said, and what you request shall be done. And, by Hercules, I wish I could invent something very festive, which might excite immoderate laughter. After this, being myself distended with much wine, I immediately rise, through the admonition of my servants, who informed me that it was now night, and having hastily bid farewell to Byrrhaena, I proceed home- ward, with staggering steps. And while we go through the first broad street, the torch to which we trusted [as our guide] was extinguished by a sudden blast of wind ; so that, being scarcely liberated from the darkness of unexpected night, it was with difficulty and weariness that we could reach our home, our toes frequently striking against the stones. But when we now drew nearer to our street, behold, three men, of strong and vast bodies, rushed, with the greatest violence, against our gate, and wrere not in the smallest degree terrified by our presence, but frequently attacked it, with a greater accumulation of force, so that to all of us, and especially to me, they appeared to be robbers, and of the most cruel description. Imme- diately, therefore, I seize a sword, liberated from my bosom, and which I carried with me, concealed in my garments, for these purposes. Without delay I threw myself into the midst of the robbers, and plunged my theologists and philosophers, to be the sport of divinity. Hence the ancient authors of fables call this peculiarity of the providence of the Gods, energising about the world, laughter. So that, as Proclus well observes, (in Plat. Polit.) we must define the laughter of the Gods to be their exuberant energy in the universe, and the cause of the gladness of all mundane natures. And, as this energy is never-failing, the laughter of the Gods is very properly said by Homer to be unextinguished. The source, therefore, of this exuberant energy and mundane gladness, is the God of laughter.
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