268 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



points of the religious devotees, of whom St. Francis himself is the 

 type. The earlier writers on expression contended that blushing 

 was specially designed from the beginning, that according to one 

 author "the soul might have sovereign power of displaying in the 

 cheeks the various internal emotions of the moral feelings." To 

 explain blushing on more reasonable grounds, it is necessary to have 

 recourse to the idea that a sensitive regard for the opinions of 

 others acts primarily on the mind inducing a play of emotion 

 which, coursing through the nerves regulating the circulation of the 

 face especially, results in the dilatation of the minute bloodvessels 

 of the part to which attention has been directed. Concentration of 

 attention on the face lies at the root of the mental act involved in 

 blushing, and that such attention has not escaped the effects of 

 habit and inheritance is the safest of conclusions founded on the 

 common experience of our race. 



It remains, finally, to direct attention to the general proofs 

 which the evolution theory, resting the origin of human emotions 

 chiefly upon the idea of our derivation and descent from lower stages 

 of existence, is entitled to produce by way of supporting the latter 

 conclusion. It is very noticeable that the will has, at the most, but 

 little share in the development of the emotions, just as in many cases 

 (e.g., the phenomena of blushing) it is powerless to hinder their ex- 

 pression. Nor have most of the typical modes of expression been 

 newly acquired that is, they do not appear as our own and original 

 acts since many traits are exhibited from our earliest years, and may 

 then be as typically represented as in later life. Equally valuable is the 

 evidence which the observation of abnormal phases of the human 

 mind reveals in support of the inherited nature of our chief emotions. 

 The blind display the typical emotions (e.g. blushing) equally with 

 those who see. Laura Bridgman, the educated deaf-mute, laughed, 

 clapped her hands, and blushed truly by instinct and nature, and not 

 from imitation or instruction. This girl likewise shrugged her 

 shoulders as naturally as her seeing and hearing neighbours, and 

 nodded her head affirmatively and shook it negatively by a similar 

 instinct. Not less remarkable, as testifying to the inherent nature of 

 human expressions, is the experience of the physician who labours 

 amongst the insane. The idiot will cackle like a goose as his only 

 language, or give vent to monosyllables which are little above the 

 simple cries of the animal world in complexity or meaning. Every 

 act and expression is not originally of the man but of the truly 

 animal. " Whence come the animal traits and instincts in man? . . . 

 Whence come the savage snarl, the destructive disposition, the 

 obscene language, the wild howl, the offensive habits, displayed by 

 some of the insane?" "Are these traits," asks Dr. Maudsley, 

 " really the reappearance of a primitive instinct of animal nature a 



