TOLTJNTART AND INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS. 307 



an example of volition, which occurs even when volition ia 

 antagonistic ? We are quite aware that it is impossible to 

 draw any absolute line of demarcation between automatic 

 actions and actions which are not automatic. Doubtless 

 we may pass gradually from the purely reflex, through the 

 consensual, to the voluntary. Taking the case Mr. Bain 

 cites, it is manifest that from a heat of such moderate de- 

 gree that the withdrawal from it is wholly voluntary, we 

 may advance by infinitesimal steps to a heat which compels 

 involuntary withdrawal ; and that there is a stage at which 

 the voluntary and involuntary actions are mixed. But the 

 difficulty of absolute discrimination is no reason for neg- 

 lecting the broad general contrast ; any more than it is for 

 confounding light with darkness. If we are to include as 

 examples of volition, all cases in which pleasures and pains 

 " stimulate the active machinery of the living framework 

 to perform such operations as procure the first and abate 

 the last," then we must consider sneezing and coughing, as 

 examples of volition ; and Mr. Bain surely cannot mean 

 this. Indeed, we must confess ourselves at a loss. On the 

 one hand if he does not mean it, his expression is lax to a 

 degree that surprises us in so careful a writer. On the 

 other hand, if he does mean it, we cannot understand his 

 point of view. 



A parallel criticism applies to his definition of Emotion. 

 Here, too, he has departed from the ordinary acceptation 

 of the word ; and, as we think, in the wrong direction. 

 Whatever may be the interpretation that is justified by its 

 derivation, the word Emotion has come generally to mean 

 that kind of feeling which is not a direct result of any ac- 

 tion on the organism ; but is either an indirect result of 

 euch action, or arises quite apart from such action. It is 

 used to indicate those sentient states which are independ- 

 ently generated in consciousness ; as distinguished from 

 those generated in our corporeal framework, and known aa 



