CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



to be recognised as a distinct class, differing 

 materially from the sensations of the five senses. 

 They have been regarded by some mental philos- 

 ophers as proceeding from a sense apart, a sixth, 

 or muscular sense, and have accordingly been 

 enrolled under the general head of sensations. 

 There are, however, strong grounds for separating 

 them from those, and giving them both an inde- 

 pendent position, and a priority in the exposition. 

 It is maintained to be a fact, that movement pre- 

 cedes sensation at the outset of life, and is con- 

 stantly breaking out without reference to the 

 impressions of sense. An animal in the freshness 

 of its morning vigour is disposed to exercise for its 

 own sake, gathering sensations as it goes, but not 

 urged by these in the first instance. Moreover, 

 action enters as a component element into our 

 principal senses. The feelings of Touch involve 

 the movements of the hand ; in the ear there is a 

 muscular apparatus ; and the eye contains no less 

 than six muscles, which participate in the im- 

 pressions made during vision. Thus, in fact, the 

 senses are compounds of muscle and their own 

 special sensibility ; so that it would appear 

 advisable to ascertain, in the first instance, what 

 is the characteristic sensibility of the muscles 

 taken apart, as a preparation for considering them 

 in combination with the tactile, auditory, and 

 visible impressions. Besides, we must remember 

 that a large amount of pleasure and pain is 

 associated with muscular exercise generally, of 

 which an account ought to be given somewhere, 

 and nothing is gained by postponing these to the 

 termination of the discussion of the senses. It 

 will appear as we proceed that muscle and sense 

 present a grand contrast in the system, being the 

 foundation of the great distinction of active and 

 passive that runs through the whole of mind. The 

 nerve-currents proceed from the senses inward to 

 the nerve-centres, and from these outward to the 

 muscular organs ; and therefore in the primitive 

 anatomical structure the two are placed in contra- 

 distinction. 



The muscles in the living body are always 

 under a certain degree of contraction, least during 

 sleep, and greatest when strong efforts are made. 

 The entirely flaccid condition is seen only in death. 

 For this and many other reasons, it is argued 

 that power flows into the active system from the 

 nerve-centres without any reference to outward 

 stimulations or sensations, rendering movement 

 spontaneous to a certain extent, while capable of 

 being reinforced by the impressions conveyed 

 through the senses. Thus, for example, the eyes 

 are opened fn the morning by this central energy, 

 and are still further stimulated to remain open 

 and to move in various directions by the effect 

 of the objects that they encounter. The one 

 cause is termed the spontaneous or the central 

 energy, the other is the sensational or outward 

 prompting. 



In classifying the Feelings arising in the mind 

 in consequence of muscular states, we may put 

 aside those arising from injuries to the muscle, 

 hurts, cuts, lacerations, diseases. The resulting 

 pain is distinctive, that is, has a different character 

 from the pains produced by injury to bones or 

 nerves ; but the distinction of most importance 

 to the psychologist is that between muscular feel- 

 ings that have a strongly marked emotional char- 

 acter, and muscular feelings whose emotional char- 



338 



acter is feeble, but which supply materials to the 

 intelligence. 



1. The feelings of muscular exercise differ con- 

 siderably according to the manner of the exertion. 

 The dead strain is the best case for shewing the 

 pleasures and pains incident to mere expenditure 

 of muscular force. When the muscles are fresh 

 and healthy, exertion is highly pleasurable, and 

 is expressly sought after as a pleasure in field- 

 sports and gymnastics. In athletic constitutions, 

 muscular pleasures take a prominent rank among 

 the ends and pursuits of life. On the other hand, 

 the pain of over-wrought muscle is exceedingly 

 acute and repulsive, and unless submerged by 

 some very exciting occasion, as in a keen contest, 

 is looked upon as a severe form of endurance. 



In most sports, however, the element of move- 

 ment comes in to affect the pleasures and pains 

 of mere muscular expenditure. The kind of the 

 feeling varies a good deal with the character of 

 the movement. Slow movements such as a 

 sauntering walk, a drawling speech, a solemn 

 gesticulation produce a massive or voluminous 

 state of feeling, both abundant and strong, 

 approaching to the class of passive emotions. 

 Quick movements, on the other hand, are exciting, 

 inflaming the system into elation and boisterous 

 display what may be called mechanical intoxica- 

 tion. Muscular expenditure generally is a sedative, 

 but rapid movements of the smaller muscles 

 those, for example, of the eyes, or the features, or 

 the voice have a quite opposite tendency. 



Movements gradually increasing or diminishing, 

 have a more pleasurable charm than those of a 

 uniform character. The pleasure of being carried 

 along by another power which may be called 

 passive movement is very high : this kind of 

 movement gives a very gentle stimulus to the 

 active organs, and produces much of the pleasure 

 without the fatigue of exertion. 



2. For the purposes of our intelligence, we need 

 to be distinctively aware of degrees in our motive 

 energy put forth. It is in this way that we attain 

 perceptions of many properties of the outward 

 world. We are so far differently affected by two 

 unequal weights or resistances as to distinguish 

 the one from the other, and identify each with its 

 equal. This graduated sensibility becomes con- 

 firmed into a series of enduring and revivable 

 impressions corresponding to the differences of 

 external things. We discriminate between one 

 pound, and two, five, or fifty, and can acquire the 

 sensibility to nice shades of gradation by the help 

 of special practice. The movements of the muscles 

 are also a subject of discrimination. We are 

 differently affected by a partial and a total con- 

 traction of a muscle, and therefore, to a smaller 

 or larger sweep of the organ, as in the arm or the 

 eye ; which corresponds with differences of linear 

 extension, the basis of our notion of space generally. 

 We are, further, unequally acted on by the various 

 degrees of rapidity of contraction, which is our 

 internal measure of velocity of movement. These 

 differences of sensibility are not the same as the 

 more or less pleasure or pain that we derive from 

 active exercise ; although it may be that they are 

 associated with the emotional discrimination in 

 the first instance. The more we give ourselves 

 up to feeling or enjoyment, and the reverse, the 



i less acutely do we draw those distinctions that 

 I relate to the facts of the world ; and the more 



