EMOTION PRODUCES ACTION. 211 



citemeiit of the muscles and excitement of the nerves of 

 sensation. 



In ourselves, distinguished from lower creatures as we 

 are by feelings alike more powerful and more varied, 

 parallel facts are at once more conspicuous and more nu- 

 merous. We may conveniently look at them in groups. 

 We shall find that pleasurable sensations and painful sen- 

 sations, pleasurable emotions and painful emotions, all 

 tend to produce active demonstrations in proportion to 

 their intensity. 



In children, and even in adults who are not restrained 

 by regard for appearances, a highly agreeable taste is 

 followed by a smacking of the lips. An infant will laugh 

 and bound in its nurse's arms at the sight of a brilliant 

 colour or the hearing of a new sound. People are apt to 

 beat time with head or feet to music which particularly 

 pleases them. In a sensitive person an agreeable perfume 

 will produce a smile ; and smiles will be seen on the faces 

 of a crowd gazing at some splendid burst of fireworks.- 

 Even the pleasant sensation of warmth felt on getting to 

 the fireside out of a winter's storm, will similarly express 

 itself in the face. 



Painful sensations, being mostly far more intense than 

 pleasurable ones, cause muscular actions of a much more 

 decided kind. A sudden twinge produces a convulsive 

 start of the whole body. A pain less violent, but con- 

 tinuous, is accompanied by a knitting of the brows, a set- 

 ting of the teeth or biting of the lip, and a contrac- 

 tion of the features generally. Under a persistent pain 

 of a severer kind, other muscular actions are added : 

 the body is swayed to and fro ; the hands clench any- 

 thing they can lay hold of; and should the agony rise 

 Btill higher, the sufierer rolls about on the floor almost con 

 vulsed. 



Though more varied, the natural language of the pleas- 



