The Inner Organs of Expression 151 



start in the environment, affecting first the 

 brain and then the body; it begins in im- 

 proved bodily mechanisms, stimulates mental 

 activity, and finally passes out over the motor 

 organs to act on the environment. 



Emotion has two sources and the impulses 

 involved have two routes of movement. The 

 impulse may originate in the environment, enter 

 the brain over sensory routes, form associa- 

 tions, and arouse an emotion which will gain 

 control of the motor organs; or the impulse 

 may begin in these bodily organs as a result 

 of an improved discipline and reverse the 

 route travelled by the other class of impulses. 

 The principle we have again and again em- 

 phasized is that emotions cut back the organs, 

 parts, or objects on which they focus. We 

 have, on the one hand, centrally excited emo- 

 tions which, by weakening mental associations, 

 degenerate the body ; on the other hand, emo- 

 tions and inward-going impulses which regen- 

 erate and uplift. The sensory organs permit 

 external impressions to gain direct admission 

 to thought centres ; their emotional effects are 

 outward-going and decadent. The develop- 



