Nathaniel Hawthorn (Ethan Brand)

Laughter, when out of place, mistimed, or busting forth from a disordered state of feeling, may be the most terrible modulation of the human voice. The laughter of one asleep, even if it be a little child,-the madman's laugh,-the wild, screaming laugh of a born idiot,-are sounds that we sometimes tremble to hear, and would always willingly forget. Poets have imagined no utterance of fiends or hobgoblins so fearfully appropriate as a laugh.