ill. III.] ACTIONS OF THE DISTRESSING PASSIONS. 171 



passions are so dangerous, when the plague and contagious 

 diseases are prevalent. 



315. The sentient actions which accompany a foreseeing 

 in these passions, and whereby they are the most distinctly 

 distinguished from all other kind of distress, exhibit imperfectly 

 that state of the body which would arise during the fulfilment 

 of the foreseeing (257). A timid person abhors most strongly 

 that condition which he foresees ; hence a secondary instinct 

 is usually conjoined with the passion, namely, that of self- 

 preservation (288), the sentient actions of which are combined 

 with those of the foreseeing (241, 273). These subordinate 

 instincts of self-preservation or defence, accompany all kinds 

 of fear, and excite the corresponding volitional actions, ac- 

 cording to the laws of instinct, as running, shouting, seizing, 

 &c., only they are specially directed to an object by the fore- 

 seeing itself. Thus, when a person fears he will perish by the 

 fall of a house, he runs away in virtue of the instinct of self- 

 preservation, but with his head bent down, or his hands lifted 

 over it, induced to act thus by the foreseeing of the evil, exactly 

 as he would do if the house were falling upon him. In the 

 same way he would cover the heart if he feared being run 

 through with a sword. 



316. Certain phenomena result from all the sentient actions 

 of these passions combined, which specially characterise them, 

 although only effected by the connection of all other forces of 

 the body with the animal sentient forces, and are to be con- 

 sidered, not as direct actions of the passions, but as purely 

 physical, mechanical, or animal movements caused thereby. 

 Thus all kinds of fear have this peculiarity, that they cause 

 the bowels to be moved ; that they contract the skin, causing 

 the phenomenon of shuddering ; and that they induce a peculiar 

 contortion (ausschlag) of the mouth ; fear, like grief, will also 

 soon turn the hair gray. Alexander Drummond attributes the 

 change of colour in the chameleon to its remarkable timidity. 



317. Everything that can excite a strong sensational un- 

 pleasant feeling respecting present or future circumstances, 

 favours grief and all kinds of fear. The mind can be thus 

 injured by education, particularly by ghost-stories, which terrify 

 children. All causes of low spirits render the mind disposed 

 to grief or fear. The sensations, and other conceptions. 



