Affective Tendencies 



running. The first time this occurred the sensation was 

 somewhat as follows : it happened that I was suddenly 

 aware of a very indefinite unrest, a lack of something 

 without being able to say just what the matter was. Not 

 until after some reflection did I discover the cause in 

 the stopping of my clock." 30 



Moreover each of us has doubtless had opportunity 

 to observe how things which are disagreeable at first 

 finally become attractive from custom, and how such 

 habits assumed in the course of man's life become as per- 

 emptory "needs" as those which we call natural needs. 

 "Smokers, snuff-takers, and those who chew tobacco, 

 furnish familiar instances of the way in which long per- 

 sistence in a sensation not originally pleasurable, makes 

 it pleasurable the sensation itself remaining unchanged. 

 The like happens with various foods and drinks, which, 

 at first distasteful, are afterwards greatly relished if fre- 

 quently taken." 31 



Thence arises the hankering after certain customary 

 things which we suddenly miss : "In some animals there 

 is produced a condition resembling nostalgia, expressing 

 itself in a violent desire to return to former haunts, or 

 in a pining away resulting from the absence of accus- 

 tomed persons and things." 32 



Mere habit, therefore, is enough, as we have seen in 

 the case of family love, to cause other similar affectivities 

 also to originate and take root. Such are gregariousness, 

 sociability, friendship, and the like: "The perception of 



30 G. E. Miiller, Zur Theorie der Sinnlichen Aufmerksamkeit, 

 p. 128, Leipsic, Edelmann. 



"Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Psychology, 4th ed., I, 

 287. London, Williams and Norgate, 1899. 



S2 Th. Ribot, Essay on the Creative Imagination, p. 95. Chi- 

 cago, The Open Court Publishing Company, 1906. 



