CH. III.] ACTIONS OF THE PAINFUL PASSIONS. 169 



general, and of sorrow in particular, are vital movements 

 antagonistic to the natural movements, in so far as they depend 

 upon a sensational annoyance (259). The blood is retained 

 and accumulates in the lungs, as is shown by sighing, prse- 

 cordial anxiety, pallor of the face, small pulse, and coldness of 

 the extremities. Does this congestion take place in consequence 

 of feebleness of the heart ? or is it over dilated at each stroke, 

 and contracts again too feebly? or does it beat irregularly, not 

 expelHng a mass of blood equal to that which it receives ? The 

 latter is the more probable state, since in no true passion are 

 those movements which constitute its direct sentient actions, 

 weaker than in health, but stronger (94), although in the 

 distressing class they are tumultuous and contra-natural (209). 

 This is the more manifest, when the passion of sorrow is 

 distinguished from that condition of the mind, in which there 

 are unpleasant conceptions without a full development of the 

 instincts or emotions, — and termed a sorrowful, low-spirited, 

 melancholic state of mind, for in this, the continued annoyance 

 can debilitate the vital movements (254, 261, iii). To this class 

 belongs a continued state of secret anxiety, sorrow, carking 

 care, jealousy, hatred, envy, &c., which consists in a continued 

 state of suffering, seldom or never attaining the force of an 

 instinct or passion, and in which the vital movements are 

 obviously rendered weaker. But in a true passion of the 

 distressing class, the movements do not indicate debility ; but, 

 on the contrary, the restlessness, the loud cries, the wringing 

 of the hands, the tearing of the hair, &c., indicate increased 

 activity. 



311. The disturbance of the hearths action, in sorrow and 

 in all the painful passions, leads to disturbance of all the 

 functions of the body, and, as experience teaches, to disease 

 and death. If these emotions or passions remove or alleviate 

 many diseases, it is only by their direct sentient actions, or by 

 those of the secondary conceptions (259). 



312. Those sentient actions of regret, that depend upon the 

 foreseeing of its object, and which imperfectly express its fulfil- 

 ment (257), are closely accompanied by those of an imagination, 

 since the emotion is felt for some thing passed (309, 67), and 

 this imagination is often so vivid, that it becomes an imperfect 

 sensation (148). Thus it is that the form of a beloved indi- 



