316 The Unity of the Organism 



road toward organismalism as to believe genuinely in the 

 organic and organisation, but not far enough to make him 

 accept unreservedly individual organisms. 



We are able to state definitely wherein lies the great and 

 rather unique merit of Whitman's investigations on animal 

 behavior. (1) By a judicious combination of pure observa- 

 tion and observation aided by experiment and conception, he 

 pushed psychic phenomena in the form of instinct down al- 

 most to the physico-chemical level; that is, to the proto- 

 plasmic level. (2) He at the same time remained positively 

 within the organic, the living realm. His merit is that of 

 restraint as well as of positive achievement. He did not per- 

 mit his enthusiasm for physical explanation to betray 

 him into adopting a phraseology which, while sounding like 

 an explanation of instinct, amounts in reality to a denial or 

 a repudiation of it. 



So much for the evidence of vital connection between in- 

 stinct and organization. According to the schedule indi- 

 cated a few pages back for reviewing systematically this con- 

 nection through the entire range of psychic life, we have 

 next to glance at the connection between the emotions and 

 organization. 



Emotion and Physical Organization 



Approaching this subject as we now are from the direction 

 of psychology proper, the well-known James-Lange interpre- 

 tation of emotion comes immediately to mind. It will be 

 advantageous for our sketch not to focus attention too close- 

 ly on any theory or discussion but to take in as much as we 

 can of the entire field, keeping in the foreground our own 

 personal experiences and observations as contrasted with the 

 descriptions and views of authorities. What I mean is that 

 the reader shall take himself in hand for serious study as to 

 his emotional life, watching himself from hour to hour, day 



