Pleasure and Pain. 713 



the points of friction and reduce them to correspondence and harmonj^. 

 And so we are to conceive the action going on in organ building. There 

 is certain to be a tendency in such action to produce a degree of correla- 

 tion, mutuality and symmetry in the whole body of the cerebral organs, 

 the aggregate result forming the basis of character, as observed else- 

 where. Youth is the formative period, during which this process of 

 harmonizing and adjusting the organs to each other is most active, and 

 during which new sensations are received with less of a surprise to those 

 which have been previously received. The griefs and disappointments 

 of youth are less intense, and more speedily recovered from, than those 

 of later years. In maturity the organs have become balanced with each 

 other, and by their automatic interactions have become mutually ad- 

 justed, correlated and consistent with each other, so that any disturb- 

 ance of one is apt to involve others. A great grief or disappointment 

 may quite undo a whole character, or it may so derange the symmetry 

 and balance of the organs as to produce insanity. We instinctively 

 state the material fact when we say the man is "unbalanced. " We may 

 observe here that the disturbance of this balance may be effected by a 

 too great joy as well as by a too great grief, as we may disturb the bal- 

 ance of scales by either taking away from or adding to one of them. 



In further confirmation of this theory, we have the fact that the dis- 

 turbance caused by the introduction of sensations of a disturbing char- 

 acter, depends largely on the abruptness with which they are introduced. 

 A man losing all his property at once may be shocked into insanity, 

 whereas, if he loses it piecemeal during a period of years, he becomes 

 gradually adjusted and reconciled to the new conditions. So we recog- 

 nize the necessity of " breaking the news " in cases liable to produce 

 excessive grief or joy. This expression again indicates, perhaps un- 

 wittingly, the fact that a great sensation can distribute its force and 

 secure equilibration between the organ directly affected and its associated 

 organs with less shock if it is " broken" and administered piecemeal. 

 On the other hand when a joke is perpetrated with the design of produc- 

 ing laughter, we endeavor to concentrate as much of its force as possible 

 in its "point," so that the shock upon the organ or organs involved in 

 its perception shall be so sudden as to cause an explosion in motor ex- 

 pression, which in such case is laughter. If the story is awkardly re- 

 lated so that the idea which should come out suddenly and at once is 

 allowed to appear a part at a time, it may produce amusement but not 

 an explosion. A witticism, joke or pun in order to provoke laughter 

 must possess ideas which are in pleasant harmony, but whose harmony 

 is not obvious till the point is reached. 



It was observed that pains arising from injuries to the body are felt 

 in the brain. The entire surface of the body and many of the internal 



