Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.

“Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them--and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon--laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,--push it a little-- crowd it a little--weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand." (excerpt "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts).


 ... Samuel Clemens  (1835-1910) [aka Mark Twain], American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.

Spatial relationship

"Eight Bells"

“Eight Bells” features two mariners, nearly identical in appearance and outfit.    The pair depict two types of looking, one peering out in the distance, the other focused on something close at hand. In their spatial relationship, the two individuals can be construed as a striking metaphor of the scientific counterpoint duality of exploring on one hand the immense vastness of the cosmos and on the other the deep intrinsic probing of microscopic nature. Painted in 1886 this is one of Homer’s most celebrated paintings.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker

Pictured at 44 a quiet, strong-willed, terse, sociable nature; and dry sense of humor. Harper's sent Homer to the front lines of the American Civil War (1861–1865), where he sketched battle scenes and camp life, the quiet moments as well as the chaotic ones. He was very private about his personal life and his methods. Perhaps Homer's austere individualism is aptly captured in this curious admonition to artists and painters.

"Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems. Leave rocks for your old age—they're easy"