THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EMOTION. 279 



to children, how they display emotion in a similar manner, how they 

 instantaneously respond to a stimulus, whether it call forth joy, anger, 

 or grief. Then there is the uneducated and unenlightened pauper of 

 many an agricultural district of our own land, and there is the idiot, 

 and the insane, whose self-feeling is predominant, whose whole life is 

 centred in self, as much as is the child's. If after these we consider 

 adult and educated man, we shall see that his sensations, feelings, and 

 emotions, each mental state, in fact, which is called up in his brain, 

 may be, and for the most part are, attended with muscular movement 

 voluntary or involuntary, indicating the pleasure or pain which accom- 

 panies the mental stimulation. The amount of movement will often 

 be the measure of the amount of force extricated and emitted from the 

 centre on the application of a stimulus. 



The first thing we notice is that most of the emotions of man are 

 the same in kind as those of children, or even the inferior animals, 

 the same in kind, though varying in complexity and specialty, accord- 

 ing to the infinite variety of the acquirements of the human brain. 

 The emotion of admiration, awe, and wonder, which fills our breast on 

 seeing some marvellous spectacle or hearing some great news, what is 

 it but the wonder which we see depicted in the animal when it sees for 

 the first time something entirely novel and strange ? I once saw a 

 leveret meet face to face a young dog in a covert. Probably neither 

 had previously encountered such an object. They stood for a moment 

 transfixed with surprise ; this, changing in the hare to fear, caused it to 

 turn and fly ; the dog, not quite so timorous, pursued, his wonder being 

 converted, by the leveret's flight, into the emotion of pursuit. The 

 animal's emotions we recognize by its motions ; we could not otherwise 

 assert that it experienced emotions at all. Its brain, when stimulated, 

 at once converts its force into motion. And, if we strictly analyze the 

 feelings and emotions of man, we shall find that here also action or 

 motion of some kind is almost invariably the concomitant of emotion 

 at any rate, when this is at all intense, or, as we rightly say, 2?ower- 

 ful. With regard to many of our feelings and emotions, this is at once 

 apparent. If some sudden disaster occurs to a man, his countenance, 

 probably his limbs, will denote his terror, grief, or anger. He is said 

 to be devoid of feeling, if this be not the case. His mode of speech, 

 his tone of voice, is affected by it, and he may be led into immediate and 

 violent action, so involuntary that it may almost be called automatic. 

 On the other hand, pleasant sights and news will produce correspond- 

 ing traits in countenance and movements of limbs. The latter will be 

 less marked than those set in motion by pain or grief, inasmuch as a 

 pleasant stimulus will set up less violent action than one that is painful. 



When we look at the simple emotions and feelings of man, we find 

 him exactly on a par with the child or the animal. A violent stimulus 

 produces at once violent, or at any rate manifest, action, facial or 

 other. There is a conversion of nerve-force into muscular movement, 



