Something that has always intrigued me about Abraham Lincoln is, not surprisingly, his sense of humor. As far as I can tell, he's the first American President to have one.
That's because the term “sense of humor” really wasn't in common usage until the eighteen-sixties and seventies. In the eighteen-forties and fifties, it was called “the sense of the ridiculous,” and didn't have the positive connotations that “sense of humor” has today. Back then, what was ridiculous was what invited ridicule. Funniness and cruelty went hand in hand. Of course, they still do a lot of arm-in-arm strolling in our day as well.
Lincoln's humor was very different because, for one thing, it was actually “humor” as the word was defined in his time. We don't make the distinction between “wit” and “humor” anymore, but in the nineteenth century people did. Wit was sarcastic and antipathetic while humor was congenial and empathetic. It's the differ—ence we note now when we distinguish between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” Lincoln was much more about “laughing with” than “laughing at.” And when “laughing at,” it was often himself he was mocking.
In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, when Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced, Lincoln replied, referencing his homeliness, “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?” And, in a way, Lincoln's face itself tells us much about his sense of humor.
You can comb through thousands of photographs of politicians, soldiers, and the like from Lincoln's time and not find a single smile. Here's his sourpussed cabinet.
True, the extended exposures required for photographs of that era made smiling difficult. Yet Lincoln alone, as far as I can tell, overcame that difficulty. And though there is only a hint of smile in his photographs, it hints at what Lincoln knew too well: that, as Mark Twain pointed out, “the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow.”
Interestingly, while having a sense of humor, or at least the appearance of one provided by comedy writers, has become a necessary characteristic for an American President in our time, in the nineteenth century, too much humor was considered a liability. And that was the case for Lincoln. A journalist covering the Lincoln-Douglas debates commented that “I could not take a real personal liking to the man, owing to an inborn weakness for which he was even then notorious and so remained during his great public career, he was inordinately fond of jokes, anecdotes, and stories.”
There's hoping that our age might have a more favorable feeling towards him.?
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一些一直让我对亚伯拉罕·林肯，毫不奇怪，他的幽默感。据我所知，他是美国第一任总统有一个。
这是因为术语“幽默感”真的不是在常见的用法，直到十八岁六十年代和年代。在说，五十多岁时，它被称为“荒谬的感觉”，并没有积极的内涵，“幽默感”今天。当时，什么是荒谬是什么邀请嘲笑。幽默和残忍是齐头并进的。当然，他们仍然做很多手挽着手漫步在我们的一天。
林肯的幽默是非常不同的，因为，首先，它实际上是“幽默”这个词被定义为在他的时间。我们不区分“智慧”和“幽默”了，但在19世纪的人做。智慧是讽刺和反感而幽默是一致的、善解人意的。这是我们现在的生活不同注意当我们区分“笑”和“笑。”林肯是更多关于“笑”，而不是“与嘲笑。”，当“笑”，它常常被自己他被嘲笑。
在著名的林肯-道格拉斯大辩论，当道格拉斯指责林肯被虚伪的，林肯回答说，引用他的朴素，“老实说，如果我是双面的，我表现的你吗？”，在某种程度上，林肯的脸本身告诉我们太多关于他的幽默感。
你可以梳理成千上万的照片的政客、军人等从林肯的时间，而不是找到一个微笑。这是他的sourpussed内阁。
真的，延长曝光照片那个时代的要求使微笑困难。然而林肯孤单，据我所知，克服了这个困难。虽然只有一丝的微笑在他的照片，但它暗示了什么林肯知道太好：马克·吐温那指出，“幽默的秘密来源不是喜悦而是忧愁。”
有趣的是，虽然有幽默感，或者至少出现一个喜剧作家提供的，已经成为一个必要的特性对一位美国总统在我们的时代，在19世纪，太多的幽默被认为是一种责任。那是如此的林肯。林肯与道格拉斯的辩论一名记者报道评论说，“我不能把一个真正的个人喜欢这个人，由于一个天生的弱点，他甚至被然后臭名昭著的，所以依然在他的伟大的公共事业，他是非常地喜欢笑话，轶事，和故事。”
有希望，我们的年龄可能更有利对他感觉。？
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