The Emotions m their Relation to Instinct. 189 



centres of Tony's brain, and the effects of this commotion 

 are distributed by outgoing nerves to muscles, glands, and 

 so forth, giving rise to motor effects and visceral effects ; 

 from the muscles and glands there are then transmitted 

 to the brain impulses which set up a second commotion in 

 the cortical region, and it is this second commotion that 

 gives rise in Tony's consciousness to the emotional state. 

 Such in crude outline is Prof. James's contention. We 

 may express it in a word by saying that the emotion is 

 generated by a back-stroke from the motor organs and 

 viscera concerned in the so-called " expression." It may 

 be well, however, to quote Prof. James's own words. 



" Our natural way of thinking about these coarser 

 emotions," he says, "is that the mental perception of 

 some fact excites the mental affection called the emotion, 

 and that this latter state of mind gives rise to the bodily 

 expression. My theory, on the contrary, is that the bodily 

 changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, 

 and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the 

 emotion. Common sense says, we lose our fortune, are 

 sorry, and weep ; we meet a bear, are frightened, and run ; 

 we are insulted by a rival, are angry, and strike. The 

 hypothesis here to be defended says that this order of 

 sequence is incorrect ; that the one mental state is not 

 immediately induced by the other ; that the bodily mani- 

 festations must first be interposed between ; and that the 

 more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we 

 cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, 

 and not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are 

 sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be. Without 

 the bodily states following on the perception, the latter 

 would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colourless, desti- 

 tute of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear 

 and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it 



