FEELINGS ACT AS MUSCULAR STIMULI. 213 



anger, first showing itself in frowns, in distended nostrils, 

 in compressed lips, goes on to produce grinding of the 

 teeth, clenching of the fingers, blows of the fist on the ta- 

 ble, and perhaps ends in a violent attack on the offending 

 person, or in throwing abont and breaking the furniture. 

 From that pursing of the mouth indicative of slight dis- 

 pleasure, up to the frantic struggles of the maniac, we shall 

 find that mental irritation tends to vent itself in bodily ac- 

 tivity. 



All feelings, then — sensations or emotions, pleasurable 

 or painful — have this common characteristic, that they are 

 muscular stimuli. Not forgetting the few apparently ex- 

 ceptional cases in which emotions exceeding a certain inten- 

 sity produce prostration, we may set it down as a general 

 law that, alike in man and animals, there is a direct connec- 

 tion between feeling and motion ; the last growing more 

 vehement as the first growls more intense. Were it allow- 

 able here to treat the matter scientifically, we might trace 

 this general law down to the principle known among phys- 

 iologists as that of reflex action* Without doing this, 

 however, the above numerous instances justify the general- 

 ization, that mental excitement of all kinds ends in excite- 

 ment of the muscles ; and that the two preserve a more or 

 less constant ratio to each other. 



" But what has all this to do w^ith The Origin and 

 Function of Music f " asks the reader. Very much, as 

 we shall presently see. All music is originally vocal. All 

 vocal sounds are produced by the agency of certain mus- 

 cles. These muscles, in common with those of the body at 

 large, are excited to contraction by pleasurable and painful 

 feelings. And therefore it is that feelings demonstrate 



* Those who seek mformation on this point may find it in an interest 

 mg tract by Mr. Alexander Bain, on Animal Iiistinct and Intelligence. 



