254 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



in our hearing, is as fair and simple an illustration of the objective 

 source of emotions as could well be found. The production of the 

 emotion in such a case depends upon the ordinary laws of sensation, 

 through the operation of which we gain our knowledge of the world 

 nay, of ourselves also. Waves of sound set in vibration by the 

 voice of the speaker, have impinged upon the drum of the ear. 

 Thence converted into a nervous impression or impulse, the sound- 

 waves have travelled along the auditory nerve to the brain. There 

 received as a '' sensation " there appreciated and transformed into 

 " consciousness " the brain has shown its appreciation of the know- 

 ledge conveyed to it by the ear, in the production through the nerve- 

 mechanism of the bloodvessels, of the suffused tint which soon over- 

 spreads the face. But this direct production of an emotion by 

 mental action, and from the foreground of consciousness, is opposed 

 in a manner by a second method which may be termed " subjective " 

 by way of distinction from the objective sensation derived from the 

 voice of the speaker, and giving rise to the blush. From the " back- 

 ground of consciousness," wherein Memory may be said to dwell, there 

 may come the remembrance of the occasion which gives rise directly 

 to the blush. Projected into the foreground of consciousness, the sub- 

 jective sensation may be as vividly present with us in the spirit as when 

 it was felt in the flesh. True to its wonted action, the brain may 

 automatically influence the heart's action, and suffuse the countenance 

 as thoroughly as if the original remark had that moment been made. 

 Ringing in the ears of memory, the subjective sensation may be as 

 powerful as when it was first received from the objective side of life. 

 As has well been remarked, the import and effects of sub- 

 jective sensations may not be lightly estimated in the production 

 of various phases of the mental life. " When an exceedingly painful 

 event produces great sorrow, or a critical event great agitation, or an 

 uncertain event great apprehension and anxiety, the mind is under- 

 going a passion or suffering ; there is not an equilibrium between the 

 internal state and the external circumstances ; and until the mind 

 is able to reach adequately, either in consequence of a fortunate les- 

 sening of the outward pressure, or by a recruiting of its own internal 

 forces, the passion must continue ; in other words, the wear and tear 

 of nervous element must go on. Painful emotion is in truth psychical 

 pain : and pain here, as elsewhere, is the outcry of suffering organic 

 element a prayer for deliverance and rest." And again, this author 

 Dr. Maudsley speaking of the rationale of emotion, which in its 

 graver exhibition may produce derangement of mind, says : "When 

 any great passion causes all the physical and moral troubles which it 

 will cause, what I conceive to happen is, that a physical impression 

 made upon the sense of sight or of hearing is propagated along a 

 physical path (namely, a nerve) to the brain, and arouses a physical 



