ESSAY-REVIEWS 68 1 



observation and research may be directed. The conclusion arrived at is that 

 there are three principal stages in the development of character. " Its foundations 

 are those primary emotional systems in which the instincts play at first a more 

 important part than the emotions in them, and as instrumental to their ends are 

 found the powers of intelligence and will to which the animal attains. But even 

 in animals there is found some inter-organisation of these systems or, at least, 

 some balance of their instincts, by which they are fitted to work together as a 

 system for the preservation of their offspring and of themselves." 



"This inter-organisation is the basis of those higher and more complex 

 systems which, if not peculiar to man, chiefly characterise him, and which we 

 have called the sentiments, and this is the second stage. But character, more 

 or less rigid in the animals, is plastic in man, and thus the sentiments come to 

 develop for their own more perfect organisation systems of self-control in which 

 the intellect and will rise to a higher level than is possible at the emotional stage, 

 and give rise to those great qualities of character that we name fortitude, patience, 

 steadfastness, loyalty, and many others, and a relative ethics that is in constant 

 interaction with the ethics of the conscience, which is chiefly impressed upon us 

 through social influences. And this is the third and highest stage in the develop- 

 ment of character and the most plastic, so that it is in constant flux in each of us, 

 and the worth that we ascribe to men in a review of their lives, deeper than their 

 outward success or failure, is determined by what they have here accomplished." 



The second part of the work deals with Instinct and Emotion, and as already 

 mentioned formed the subject of a symposium by three distinguished psychologists. 

 As I was asked at the meeting to treat the subject from a physiological point of 

 view, and as this may interest the readers of SCIENCE PROGRESS, I have added 

 my remarks to this review in the form of an appendix. A principal criticism of 

 McDougall regarding Shand's position in relation to the Instincts and Emotions 

 is perhaps best illustrated by his remarks concerning Fear, to which Mr. Shand 

 has devoted a whole long chapter. McDougall says : " By including under fear a 

 number of emotional states which are in popular speech called fear but which are 

 of quite different nature and are more properly called states of anxiety, Mr. Shand 

 attempts to make the innate system of fear still more complex and comprise a still 

 larger number of tendencies, impulses, or instincts." 



" The emotion of fear (according to Shand) is said to choose intelligently which- 

 ever of these instincts is most appropriate under the circumstances as a means of 

 securing the universal end of all fear, etc." 



Mr. McDougall, having stated what he considers are Shand's views, submits that 

 the nature of fear may be more properly stated as follows : " It is an instinct 

 which impels the animal to seek cover and there lie hid." It is then a chain- 

 instinct of two links ; for the attainment of its end commonly requires the succession 

 of two modes of behaviour, first, the seeking cover, secondly, the lying hid. 

 McDougall maintains that there is essentially only one instinctive mode of 

 behaviour, viz. concealment or flight to effect concealment. We shall later discuss 

 this question from a physiological point of view. 



In respect to Mr. Shand's contention that "fear tends to elicit anger in support 

 of its end when its impulse is obstructed" (p. 261) McDougall, says : " If this is 

 admitted, why should he seek any other explanation of the fact that the behaviour 

 of fear is apt to turn, when obstructed, to the behaviour of anger." 



In another place McDougall examines Shand's dictum that " an instinct has 

 only one kind of behaviour connected with it, and when the appropriate stimulus 



