EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 261 



into action ; and all this may take place without any sen- 

 sation or consciousness on our part, though often thus 

 accompanied. As many reflex actions are highly ex- 

 pressive, the subject must here be noticed .at some little 

 length. We shall also see that some of them graduate 

 into, and can hardly be distinguished from, actions which 

 have arisen through habit. Coughing and sneezing are 

 familiar instances of reflex actions. 



The conscious wish to perform a reflex ac- 

 tion sometimes stops or interrupts its perform- 

 ance, though the proper sensory nerves may be stimulated. 

 For instance, many years ago I laid a small wager with a 

 dozen young men that they would not sneeze if they took 

 snuff, although they all declared that they invariably did 

 so ; accordingly, they all took a pinch, but, from wishing 

 much to succeed, not one sneezed, though their eyes 

 watered, and all, without exception, had to pay me the 

 wager. 



Dogs, when they wish to go to sleep on a ear- 

 pet or other hard surface, generally turn round 

 and round and scratch the ground with their fore-paws in 

 a senseless manner, as if they intended to trample down 

 the grass and scoop out a hollow, as, no doubt, their wild 

 parents did, when they lived on open, grassy plains or in 

 the woods. 



THE PRINCIPLE OF ANTITHESIS. 



Expression Certain states of the mind lead, as we have 



tions, seen m *he l 35 *- chapter, to certain habitual 



page 50. movements which were primarily, or may still 

 be, of service ; and we shall find that, when a directly op- 



