What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh!

Repplier contrasts the limited power of solemn, “serious arguments” with the sudden efficacy of laughter. The image of “whole batteries” suggests sustained intellectual or rhetorical assault—pamphlets, sermons, debates—yet some entrenched “absurdities and paradoxes” survive such pressure. A laugh, however, functions like a “death-knell”: it punctures pretension, exposes contradictions, and withdraws the social respect that allows certain ideas to persist. The line implies that ridicule can be a form of critique—sometimes more socially decisive than logic—because it changes what people are willing to take seriously. At the same time, it hints at laughter’s moral ambiguity: it can topple folly, but it can also dismiss complex truths if used carelessly.