THE CEREBRUM, AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 765 



796. The Emotions are concerned in Man, however, in many actions, which 

 are in themselves strictly voluntary. Unless they be so strongly excited as to 

 get the better of the Will, they do not operate downwards upon the Automatic 

 centres, but upwards upon the Cerebral ; supplying the motives by which the 

 course of thought and of action is habitually determined. Thus, of two indi- 

 viduals, with differently constituted minds, one shall judge of everything through 

 the medium of a gloomy morose temper, which, like a darkened glass, repre- 

 sents to his judgment the whole world in league to injure him ; and his deter- 

 minations being all based upon this erroneous view, its indications are exhibited 

 in his actions, which are themselves, nevertheless, of an entirely voluntary cha- 

 racter. On the other hand, a person of a cheerful, benevolent disposition looks 

 at the world around as through a Claude Lorraine glass, seeing everything in its 

 brightest and sunniest aspect and, with intellectual faculties precisely similar 

 to those of the former individual, he will come to opposite conclusions ; because 

 the materials which form the basis of his judgment are submitted to it in a 

 very different condition. Various forms of Moral Insanity exhibit the same 

 contrast in a yet more striking light. We not unfrequently meet with indi- 

 viduals, still holding their place in society, who are accustomed to act so much 

 upon impulse, and to be so little guided by reason, as to be scarcely regarded 

 as sane ; and a very little exaggeration of such a tendency causes the actions to 

 be so injurious to the individual himself, or to those around him, that restraint 

 is required, although the intellect is in no way disordered, nor are any of the 

 feelings perverted. Not unfrequently we may observe similar inconsistencies, 

 resulting from the habitual indulgence of one particular feeling, or a morbid 

 exaggeration of it. The mother who, through weakness of will, yields to her 

 instinctive fondness for her offspring, in allowing it gratifications which she 

 knows to be injurious to it, is placing herself below the level of many less 

 gifted beings. The habit of yielding to a natural infirmity of temper often 

 leads into paroxysms of ungovernable rage, which, in their turn, pass into a 

 state of maniacal excitement. It is not unfrequently seen, that a delusion of 

 the intellect (constituting what is commonly known as Monomania) has in reality 

 resulted from a disordered state of the feelings, which have represented every 

 occurrence in a wrong light to the mind of the individual. All such condi- 

 tions are of extreme interest when compared with those which are met with 

 amongst idiots, and animals enjoying a much lower degree of intelligence ; for 

 the result is much the same, in whatever way the balance between the feelings 

 and the judgment (which is so beautifully adjusted in the well-ordered mind of 

 Man) is disturbed ; whether by a diminution of the Voluntary control or by an 

 undue exaltation of the feelings and passions. 



797. This double modus operandi of the Emotional consciousness down- 

 wards through the nerve-trunks upon the muscular apparatus, and also upon 

 many of the Organic functions (CHAP, xvni.) and upwards upon those Cere- 

 bral actions which give rise to the higher states of Mental consciousness affords 

 a satisfactory explanation of a fact which is practically familiar to most observers 

 of Human nature, namely, that violent excitement of the feelings most speedily 

 subsides, when these unrestrainedly expend themselves (so to speak) in their 

 natural expressions. Thus it may be commonly noticed that those who are 

 termed demonstrative persons are less firm and deep in their attachments, than 

 those who manifest their feelings less; for, without any real insincerity or 

 intentional fickleness, the strongly excited feelings of the former are rapidly 

 calmed down by the expenditure of the impulse to action which they have 

 generated whilst in the latter the very same feelings acting internally acquire 

 a permanent place in the psychical nature, and habitually operate as motives to 

 the conduct. So, again, persons who are ll quick-tempered/ 7 manifesting great 

 irascibility upon small provocations, real or supposed, are usually soon appeased, 



