The strong character would only become more cautious and more silent under the influence of drink; the weak man would immediately show his weakness.

I am told the curious fact that in the English army at the present day officers are expected to act very much after the teaching of the old Norse poet; a man is expected to be able on occasion to drink a considerable amount of wine or spirits without showing the effects of it, either in his conduct or in his speech.

"Drink thy share of mead; speak fair or not at all"-- that was the old text, and a very sensible one in its way.
Laughter was also condemned, if indulged in without very good cause.

"The miserable man whose mind is warped laughs at everything, not knowing what he ought to know, that he himself has no lack of faults." I need scarcely tell you that the English are still a very serious people, not disposed to laugh nearly so much as are the men of the more sympathetic Latin races.
You will remember perhaps Lord Chesterfield's saying that since he became a man no man had ever seen him laugh.

I remember about twenty years ago that there was published by some Englishman a very learned and very interesting little book, called "The Philosophy of Laughter," in which it was gravely asserted that all laughter was foolish.