Readin' Little Boxes

Here are two quotes from Rabelais' Gargantua and Hobbes' Leviathan.

"Sileni were in olden times little boxes, such as we see nowadays in apothecaries' shops, painted on the outside with merry frivolous pictures, such as harpies, satyrs, bridled goslings, saddled ducks, flying goats, harnessed stags, and other such paintings imagined at will to set everyone laughing (such was Silenus, master of good old Bacchus); but inside they perserved fine drugs such as balm, amergris, amomum, musk, civet, precious stones, and other valuables"
(Gargantua).

"But to teach us, that for the similitude of the thoughts, and Passions of one man, to the thoughts, and Passions of another, whosoever looketh into himself, and considereth what he doth, when he does think, opine, reason, hope, feare, &c, and upon what grounds; he shall thereby read and know, what are the thoughts, and Passions of all other men, upon the like occasions" (Leviathan).

Mr. Pantagruel looks at his own little boxes, which are the views that Mr. Pantagruel has of himself, and even though of himself, are "merry frivolous pictures," and yet Mr. Pantagruel plans to decipher accurately the "balm" within; so as to know, what are the "merry frivolous pictures" in the American Colossus (a composite of all humanity, and thereby quite a shortcut) and by extension of the above logic, a view of what is balm to the American Colossus.

Something healing resides within the laughter of Mr. Pantagruel--but what is it?
Something healing resides within the laughter of the American Colossus--but what is it?