THE HUMAN MIND. 





hunger of the morrow. The state of desire starts 

 from a recollected feeling (or from an imaginary 

 state constructed out of recollections) ; and those 

 that have little power of persisting as ideas after 

 the fact, fail to influence the conduct or voluntary 

 activity. One may enjoy a musical performance 

 while hearing it, but from the impression not 

 remaining in any force, the desire for the repeti- 

 tion of the pleasure is but feeble. 



The Emotions have an important influence on 

 the operations of the intellect itself in its own 

 sphere, by determining the attention to one class 

 of things in preference to others, and thereby giv- 

 ing a turn to our acquisitions and to our prevail- 

 ing thoughts and recollections. Any object that 

 rouses a strong feeling becomes impressed on the 

 mind through that circumstance ; moreover, our 

 trains of revived thought are favoured by the pre- 

 vailing tone of emotion. When we are under a fit 

 of anger towards some one, all that occurs to our 

 view respecting that person is principally of a 

 disparaging kind. 



This last remark bears upon an exceedingly im- 

 portant attribute of Emotion namely, the power of 

 swaying Belief, or shaping our convictions. This 

 is partly founded on the tendency of our feelings 

 to rule our conduct, and partly on the further 

 tendency now mentioned to dictate the things 

 that we shall attend to, and the thoughts that shall 

 come forward to the mind. When we are very 

 much in love with some practice, we follow it out 

 at all hazards, not only making light of the oppos- 

 ing considerations when presented to' our view, 

 but becoming blind to their very existence ; such 

 is the power of a strong feeling to paralyse the 

 forces of association in the direction whence 

 opposition to it would be likely to spring up. The 

 mind of a dreamer is habitually barred up to the 

 corresponding realities of life. 



THE SPECIAL EMOTIONS. 



Our limits compel us to indicate very briefly 

 the principal of these. 



Freedom and Restraint. 



There is a certain freedom of the play of every 

 emotion that constitutes, as it were, the fair and 

 proper development due to it, and representing 

 the average character of the state. In describing 

 the various species of emotions, we are obliged to 

 assume that the course of their diffusion is on the 

 one hand free, or unobstructed ; and on the other, 

 devoid of any excessive vehemence of manifesta- 

 tion. But it is not improper at this early stage to 

 advert to the cases of defect or excess in diffusive 

 freedom, and to the modes of feeling engendered 

 in consequence. 



We shall commence with the case of checked 

 outbursts. It often occurs to us to have the 

 expression of our feelings forcibly restrained by 

 some powerful incentive bearing upon the will, 

 and the resulting state is usually a very painful 

 one. In early life especially, great suffering is 

 often inflicted by this kind of compulsion. The 

 nature of the pain thus arising can be tolerably 

 well described, when we generalise it to the whole 

 extent of its occurrence. For, it is a state com- 

 mon to the outburst stimulated by emotion, to the 

 gust of spontaneous activity, and to voluntary 



impulses in general. The child restrained from 

 laughter or tears under strong excitement, from 

 play and sport when the organs are ' fresh,' and 

 from the pursuit of some desired object, feels 

 a species of pain common to all the three situa- 

 tions. A rush of nervous power has been made to 

 course towards the active members, while from 

 another quarter a second rush still more powerful 

 has gone towards the same parts. A well-marked 

 kind of painful feeling is begotten by the encoun- 

 ter ; while in human life the occasion is repeated 

 times without number. 



The terms applicable to the delineation of this 

 mental condition are such as the following : An 

 acute shock of pain is felt all through the system. 

 We are made the arena of a severe conflict, and 

 seem to be torn asunder by the opposing forces. 

 On any occasion when the powers at work are 

 both great and nearly balanced, the state is one 

 of poignant distress, rising to agony. For the 

 moment, the suffering is insupportably acute, but 

 as the weaker force is made to give way, the pain 

 diminishes, and the struggle is soon over. Not- 

 withstanding the bitterness of the actual contest, 

 there is this in common to it with acute physical 

 pains, generally that little shadow or gloom re- 

 mains behind, so that the whole evil is summed 

 up within the time that the conflict lasted. 



To allude next to the opposite case of unusual 

 freedom and scope being given to the outgoings of 

 the emotional wave. It is almost needless to say 

 how grateful and exhilarating is the situation of 

 free and full abandonment to all the impulses 

 that course through the system. This, indeed, is 

 the only situation where perfect enjoyment is at 

 all possible, inasmuch as every variety of restraint 

 brings in the element of pain. The kind of emo- 

 tion that possesses the mind may have every 

 possible variety of character, but the one circum- 

 stance of a liberal vent being accorded to it, gives 

 a buoyant and animated tone to the consciousness. 

 This is very decisively proved by the fact, that 

 in painful emotions an unrestrained expression 

 affords a large measure of relief. The pleasur- 

 able influence of the state of uncontrolled diffu- 

 sion is the counterpart of the pain of restraint, 

 and is for the time being a strong and massive 

 exhilaration. 



Unrestrained impulses in general, as signified 

 by the stirring name of liberty, have always taken 

 a vigorous hold of the human imagination. It 

 may perhaps be a sufficient account of this fact, 

 that the condition of restraint, in some shape or 

 other, is so constantly present as to keep up a 

 state of longing for unbounded freedom. 



Wonder. 



This is an effect producible by all species of 

 external objects through something unusual in 

 the degree or manner of their appearance. In 

 the early gaze of infancy upon the outer world, 

 everything would seem to have that influence 

 which, in after-life, arises only from what is novel, 

 rare, or surpassing. New scenes, new events, 

 new acquisitions in knowledge, new discoveries, 

 impart a racy stimulus to the mind, which con- 

 stitutes the state of wonder. A very marked 

 external expression accompanies this state. The 

 feeling itself may be described as a pleasurable 

 excitement, strong and coarse, rather than delicate 



