306 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. 



defective in some of its leading ideas. The first para 

 graphs of his first chapter, quite startled us by the strange- 

 ness of their definitions — a strangeness which can -scarcely 

 be ascribed to laxity of expression. The paragraphs run 

 thus : — 



" Mind is comprised under three heads — Emotion, Volition, 

 and Intellect. 



" Emotiox is the name here used to comprehend all that is un- 

 derstood by feelings, states of feeling, pleasures, pains, passions, 

 sentiments, affections. Consciousness, and conscious states also 

 for the most part denote modes of emotion, although there is such 

 a thing as the Intellectual consciousness. 



" Volition, on the other hand, indicates the great fact that our 

 Pleasures and Pains, which are not the whole of our emotions, 

 prompt us to action, or stimulate the active machinery of the liv- 

 ing framework to perform such operations as procure the first and 

 abate the last. To withdraw from a scalding heat and cling to a 

 gentle warmth, are exercises of volition." 



The last of these definitions, which we may most con- 

 veniently take first, seems to us very faulty. We cannot 

 but feel astonished that Mr. Bain, familiar as he is with the 

 phenomena of reflex action, should have so expressed him- 

 self as to include a great part of them along with the phe- 

 nomena of volition. He seems to be ignoring the discrimi- 

 nations of modern science, and returning to the vague con- 

 ceptions of the past — nay more, he is comprehending under 

 volition what even the popular speech would hardly bring 

 under it. If you were to blame any one for snatching his 

 foot from the scalding water into which he had inadvei • 

 tently put it, he would tell you that he could not help it; 

 and his reply would be indorsed by the general experience, 

 that the withdrawal of a limb from contact with something 

 extremely hot, is quite involuntary — that it takes place not 

 only without volition, but in defiance of an eflTort of will to 

 maintain the contact. How, then, can that be instanced aa 



