You rarely ever hear them laugh.

They are like a landscape beneath skies which are wanting in the sparkling sunbeams.

They seem to you as if they had continual sorrow of heart, as if some wrong of past ages had set its seal on their features.

The Chinaman has very little sense of the ludicrous, and he is lacking in the elements of intellectual sprightliness and vivacity which lead a Frenchman or an American to appreciate and enjoy a sally of wit, a bon mot, or a joke.

Life indeed is better, and a man can bear his burdens with more ease if he has a sense of humour.